PubliCola: Going out of business | Politics Northwest | The Seattle Times

Poblicola was a blog, as reported by Joni Balter, who was a Seattle Times Editorial Board writer.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2018176161_publicola_going_out_of_busines.html

How's the newsy business?

(not so good)

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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Visit me here:
http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

Publicola.com Rumor of the Week: The NBA in Bellevue

In Internet rumors we have this:
Rumor of the Week: The NBA in Bellevue

King County is lobbying to extend the hotel/motel tax to help Seattle pay for a revamped convention center in exchange for help bringing the NBA to Bellevue.

That is from Publicola.com, take it for what it is worth.

I am not sure why the Washington State Convention Center would need more money for their expansion. The Convention Center has control over the Seattle Hotel tax, was formed into a Public Facilities District last July.

Where does the rest of the money go? ...and the remainder of the revenues must be deposited in the affordable housing account

Thursday, January 28th, 2010, 8 am, in the Washington State House Finance Committee HB 2912 is scheduled for public hearing. The current bill title, Modifying local excise taxes in counties that have pledged lodging tax revenues for the payment of bonds prior to June 26, 1975., doesn't really say what is gong on with this bill.

What do the taxes fund now?

Safeco Field, the forgotten rubble that was the King Dome, bits of Qwest Field.

Where do the taxes come from?

You, you dope. Well, mostly King County wide hotel tax, parking taxes at Safeco Field, with a little bit of car rental taxes mixed in.

Why now?

These taxes could start to expire and close at the end of this year or possible during the next legislative session next year. An existing tax can be redirected by majority vote of both legislative houses. If they were to allow those taxes to close then you are looking at the possibility of a 60% majority needed for a new tax. Even if that 60% is knocked back down to 50% (+1), the chances of creating a new tax anytime soon is very unlikely.

There is an oddity in that Safeco Field will not need the taxes it is using right now when the bonds are paid off, but in about 5 years the stadium will turn 20 (I know, feels like yesterday) and the lease with the Mariners will end. I distinctly remember Joe Zarelli saying something about a year ago about not having the Mariners in a "Sonics" type situation in a couple of years. The public has an investment and we need to maintain it.

So, aren't there more important things we should be spending this non-general fund money on between now and the end of the Mariner's lease?

Well, yes, but let's not forget that there are businesses that carry this tax on top of there prices that could put them at a competitive disadvantage, so, there should be a little secondary benefit somewhere along the way.

First let's look at a significant want, and a real need:

On and after the date the debt on the stadium is retired, and through December 31, 2015, one-half of the revenues under this section in a county of one million five hundred thousand or more must be deposited in the arts and cultural account under (d)(i) of this subsection, and the remainder of the revenues must be deposited in the affordable housing account under (d)(ii) of this subsection.

Arts and Cultural accounts are, as you may have guessed, not getting much from the state, county, or city, general funds. Maybe they shouldn't, and maybe this makes more sense as art of a longer term solution.

The affordable housing part is a obvious need. Seattle voters approved an "affordable housing" levy last Fall. Trying to get the rest of King County to step up to that right now is a near impossible task. So, specifically, here is the what is meant by affordable housing.

(ii) At least thirty-seven and one-half percent of the revenues shall be deposited in an affordable housing account for the purposes of distributions to nonprofit organizations or public housing authorities for affordable workforce housing near or at transit stations. For the purposes of this section, "affordable workforce housing" means housing for a single person, family, or unrelated persons living together whose income is at or below one hundred twenty percent of the median income, adjusted for household size, for the county where the housing is located.
(iii) The balance of the revenues must be deposited in a special purposes account under section 8 of this act.

Affordable housing, you can't be serious. . . unless you're Speaker of the House, Frank Chopp.

In addition, LaBorde said, TCC may take advantage of the fact that House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-43) has expressed support for allowing local governments to use their hotel/motel taxes for housing. King County’s hotel/motel tax is currently paying off bonds on Seattle’s downtown stadiums; that money will become available for other purposes in 2016. LaBorde suggested that TCC might support spending some of that money on affordable housing near transit stations—one of the major goals of last year’s transit-oriented communities bill, which would have increased density around light rail stops.
Erica C. Barnett, at Publicola.net, Things Don’t Look Good for Transit Next Year, 12/04/2009.

Section 8 of the bill is a laundry list of things, such as the eventual repairs to Safeco Field:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 8. A new section is added to chapter 67.28 RCW to read as follows:
(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, money deposited in a special purposes account under this section may be used only for one or more of the following purposes within the county:
(a) Funding nonprofit organizations providing public health services;
(b) Funding nonprofit organizations providing human service programs;
(c) Funding tourism promotion as defined in RCW 67.28.080;
(d) Funding youth or amateur sports activities or facilities; (e) Funding regional centers; (f) Funding performing arts centers;
(g) Maintaining or improving publicly owned stadiums or arenas as long as improvements can be made without economic harm to existing tenants of those stadiums or arenas; or
(h) Funding community preservation and development authorities created in chapter 43.167 RCW.
(2) Beginning in calendar year 2013, funding must be provided annually in an amount necessary to maintain a stadium constructed by a public facilities district under the authority of RCW 36.100.035.

This legislation lived and died last session as HB 2252, and SB 6116. This time around it has a heavy "affordable housing" element that should provide broader support. The bill ten sponsors appear to provide a united front, Sponsors: Representatives Quall, Carlyle, O'Brien, Ericks, Dunshee, Sullivan, Blake, Jacks, Hunter, Maxwell

Many hands make light work.

Best of luck to you Ross Hunter.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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TeaHuggers?

In today's epesode of Publicola Josh Feit ties the New York Times story on Tea Party with the local activity in the Washington State Legislature.

Earlier this week, I interviewed Washington state’s Republican Minority Whip, Ellensburg-area Rep. Bill Hinkle (R-13), about his  “Washington state health care freedom act of 2010.”

Here’s an excerpt:

“Have you heard of the 10th Amendment?” Rep. Hinkle begins when asked to explain the bill. (Answer: Yes. That’d be state’s rights.) Hinkle, the Republican minority whip, says the health care bill is a federal power grab that violates the 10th Amendment “because it would be a national system, preventing states from having our own system … and this kind of stuff is driving people crazy. People in my district are furious.”

Hinkle says, “It’s time for the states to excercise the power to remind the federal government of constitutional restrictions on their power.”

Hinkle’s proposal failed along party lines, with every single Republican voting in favor. It looks like the Tea Party is already in the GOP leadership in Washington state.

Publicola: Tea Party Power in Washington State

I think we will see more reports like this as the Republicans search for identity. We have a term for the people that actually believe the Tea Party ideals.
The Republicans may be rejecting moderate voters, forcing those people to call themselves "Independents". The people that remain are Tea Partiers, and those that play along to get elected (I call them TeaHuggers).
Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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In-Kind "Media" Contribution of the Day

It is a tie. These two are actually from yesterday, but here they are:

Did Knute Berger celebrated Crosscot.com's switch to a not-for-profit Journalist-ish media outlet with a little slander?

While pretending to be on the fence between the two Seattle mayoral candidates, Joe Mallahan and Mike McGinn, Berger slung a little mud (emphasis mine).

If Mike McGinn is a conviction candidate — as contrasted with Mallahan, who seems to be an avatar (or is it shill?) of Seattle's power establishment — he's undercutting his main strength, which is to take bold, challenging stands against the conventional wisdom. You can say this is smart politics, and I suppose it would be if he were running as a conventional politician, but everything about his campaign's appeal — the low budget, the accessibility of the candidate, the insurgent tactics, even the beard — have pointed in a different direction. Are we going to discover that McGinn is now just a more rumpled, perhaps more articulate but also more lawyerly version of Joe Mallahan.
Berger, McGinn's tunnel cave, Crosscut.com

Calling McGinn a rumpled lawyer is factually correct. Would it be a stretch to call Mike McGinn, and his development brokering company, a shill for local developers wanting to greenwash housing devepment?

Calling somebody a shill is a pretty serious charge. In some states it is against the law to be a shill. Berger should know this.

But I am not sure how Berger can call Mallahan a shill, as if he is he pretending to be someone that he is not in order to misslead people into buying into him?
So, I will just chalk this up to a political in-kind contribution from a non-profit media organization.

The other in-kind media contribution of the day was from Publicola.net's Erica C. Barnett, ironically from a column/report called Contribution of the Day. in this report Barnett lists who contributed money to which political campaign. But for Barnett the facts are not enough.

. . . conservative mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan.
Erica C. Barnett, Contribution of the Day, Publicola.net

This label prompted the first comment to the story to question the author:

1. Stacy, Stacey, Stacie says:
@ECB

“Conservative mayor candidate Joe Mallahan?”

Are you even going to pretend to be a journalist Erica? Susan Hutchison yes, Joe Mallahan no. That tag is bullshit and you know it.

The answer is clearly no, Barnett is not even going to bother to pretend to be a journalist. And yes, it is "bullshit".
A conservative candidate for mayor, in Seattle, really?
It looks like Publicola.net's endorsement of Mike McGinn for Mayor does not stop with its editorial staff (whoever that is).

What is the monitary value of media bias? Should Mike McGinn have to claim these labels applied to his opponent as a contribution?
No, but the public should be aware that these two media entities are not newspapers.

Is Publicola.net having endorsers remorse?

Publicola.net, the online mostly political newsy web site, back on August 3, 2008, endorsed Mike McGinn for Mayor of Seattle in the Primary Election.

Why did they like Mike a month ago?

In order, McGinn’s follow-up acts included: 1) Starting an urbanist nonprofit called the Seattle Great City Initiative, which, among other things, helped nudge the city council to pass the legislation requiring the city to add bike and pedestrian facilities whenever it tears up city streets. . .
Publicola.net Endorses, Mike McGinn

There was more, feel free to follow the link, but the #1 was getting taxpayers to pay for improvements in and around private investments. How green of him.

Today, Erica Barnett has written a story to inform the Mike McGinn Kool-aid drinkers where Mike McGinn got support for Publicola's #1 reason for endorsing him.

So it may come as a surprise to some of his idealistic supporters that the group that financed McGinn’s Great City—in addition to environmental groups like the Cascade Bicycle Club and the Bullitt Foundation—includes many of the city’s biggest developers, law firms, and builders.
. . .
the group has posted a list of the companies and organizations themselves that funded the group’s creation.
. . .
The most prominent company on the list  is Vulcan, Paul Allen’s South Lake Union development firm. Although McGinn wouldn’t say specifically how much Vulcan had contributed to Great City, he does concede that the developer is among the organization’s top two or three contributors, along with Bullitt and the Land Conservancy.

McGinn Group Funded by Seattle’s Biz Establishment
BY ERICA C. BARNETT, 09/11/2009, 3:11 PM

The story got a shout-out from SeattleWeekly's Mark Fefer:

Where exactly is the surprise in the fact that real estate developers like Vulcan and Harbor Properties, and the architects they employ, are supportive of a group like Great City that's all about creating amenities for more density? Why wouldn't they like a group that led the charge in 2008 to get Seattle voters to put up $145 million in taxpayer money to fix up parks near the developers' condos and apartments?
News Flash From Publicola: Developers Like Density and Taxpayer-Funded Parks".

So, do not ask how and why Mike McGinn can oppose a tunnel replacement for the Alaska Way Viaduct, but be for the $290 million dollar reworking of the "Mercer mess" that does next to nothing to improve traffic (that IS the mess). It sure does look good in the middle of Paul Allen's Vulcan investment and development in the South Lake Union area (this for that?).

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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http://ManyWordsForRain.blogspot.com

Catty, borderline tacky, that is the “charm” of Publicola.net

Sometimes the news is just the news, sometimes it is an editorial, and sometimes it is both. In the case of Publicola sometimes just the facts might not be enough.

So, last night from the "Publicla: Seattle's News Elixir" there was a report on another online publication, Crosscut.com. For the most part this is a report of news, with some historical background information, and then it looks to me that there is some editorializing. I have set in bold where I think the news reporting stopped, and the characterization drifted into editorializing clouded in an unidentified source called "some". I don't know, maybe a Journalist can explain this to me, and correct me where I am wrong. Help, please, oh great and wise Journalists. Is this Journalism, a mycterismus, or both?

In the home page of Publicola.net Sandeep Kaushik has the title of "Spiritual Adviser, Guitars". Inserted into his "Spiritual" advising Mr. Kaushik drifts into an assertion attributed to "some". Is this the "Elixir" part of Publicola's motto?
How refreshing it is to have "some" as a source of derisive comments, uh, news (I don't know).

Now, we do not know who "some" are, maybe "some" had their work get poor reviews at Crosscut.com, or maybe "some" are writers at Crossutt.com that do not have the heart to tell Crosscut.com Publisher David Brewster that what they are writing is "overly dry and self-consciously upper-middlebrow to the point of borderline snobbery, though the site’s worship of intellectual detachment and penchant for discursive musings", or maybe some other nameless, faceless, "some in the local journalism". Who knows?

Gates Foundation Rides to the Rescue: Crosscut Gets $100,000 Gift.
BY SANDEEP, 08/28/2009, 6:53 PM

Back in March of this year PubliCola reported that people close to Crosscut.com, a bastion of high-minded civic commentary, were saying privately that the site might be on its last legs. Founded by David Brewster, who founded the Seattle Weekly in the 1970s and more recently Town Hall, Crosscut was conceived in 2006 in Brewster’s own image as a haven for "independent, bipartisan, ’solutionist’ politics" and analysis, as an FAQ provided on the site puts it. The site quickly emerged as a home base for Brewster’s circle of friends and acquaintances in the old school Seattle commentariat, including former Weekly editor and self-described "Mossback" Knute Berger, former Hubert Humphrey aide Ted Van Dyk, and former King Broadcasting CEO Steve Clifford. Former P-I columnist Jean Godden (now on the City Council) has contributed occasionally, as has former WSDOT director Doug MacDonald.

Initially intended as a for-profit venture, the site is privately criticized by some in the local journalism world as overly dry and self-consciously upper-middlebrow to the point of borderline snobbery, though the site’s worship of intellectual detachment and penchant for discursive musings—heavy on context, relatively light on news—has also won it a core of dedicated readers, mostly among the over-50 set.

In any event, Brewster’s solutionist politics turned out to be something of a buzzkill when it came to advertising sales, and the site rapidly burned through several hundred thousand dollars in seed capital drawn from monied Old Seattle benefactors.

By this May the Seattle Weekly (long since sold by Brewster, and currently owned by the nation’s largest alt-weekly chain, Village Voice Media) was also picking up indications of trouble, reporting that Crosscut was having difficulties paying its freelance writers. Brewster, however, was undeterred, hinting at the possibility of better days to come in an e-mail to his contributors. "I’m waiting for a decision on a lead gift that would really launch us, so I hope I can send good news and catch up with past-dues. Thank you very much for staking me and Crosscut," Brewster wrote.

He is waiting no longer. Indeed, happy days are here again for Crosscut; solutionist politics may not have won over many advertisers, but it apparently strokes the intellectual erogenous zones of program officers at major philanthropic foundations. According to two knowledgeable sources, Crosscut, now refashioned as a non-profit venture, is about to receive a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundation (the Seattle Foundation is also involved) that will ensure the stie’s continued survival for some time to come.

Though the grant is still being finalized, new signs of life at Crosscut are already apparent. As Josh reported a few days ago, Mark Matassa, a talented former Seattle Times , P-I , and Los Angeles Times editor, will be joining Crosscut on September 15 as deputy editor, a half-time position. (Matassa has been a member of PubliCola’s advisory board—not a paid gig—but is now stepping down to take the Crosscut gig; he was not a source for this post).

What other changes the new funding will bring remain to be seen. In response to an inquiry about the new Gates Foundation funding and its implications for the site, Brewster politely declined comment. “I have nothing to announce at this point,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Ok, that must be Journalism. I read Publicola, Crosscut, most of the other stuff I have feeding my little blog. Sure, I give my opinion on my personal blog, here, and I am not passing it off as News or Journalism. I am writing to remember, and refine my fleeting thoughts, and give my opinion. I am not qualified by training or experience as a Journalist. I have been writin' 'n stuff, for a couple years, n' such (and have a BA in Communication). So, forgive me if I do not always recognize Journalism when I see it.

Hey, did Sandeep Kaushik mention that Publicola.net was not much more than a spin-off of HorsesAss.org until a private investor dumped a pile of money into it?
No?
Huh, that's weird.

So, "some" readers of the story took issue with the manor of characterization of Crosscut.com, Lucky for "some" the writer responded with an explanation of his views of Crosscut.com

10. Sandeep says:
To be clear about a couple of things:

I do think David Brewster is a talented guy, who has done a lot to add to the civic discourse in Seattle. I come from a pretty upper-middlebrow background myself — spent a lot of time in graduate school working on a history Ph.D. I never finished — so I am sympathetic to efforts to elevate (and intellectualize) the discourse. And I like him personally.

Second, I think the Gates grant is great news. I’m glad to see that Crosscut will survive. We need more media choices in this town, not fewer. Also, there has been a lot of talk in the journalism world about how the old advertising based model is irreparably broken, and great hope has been pinned non-profit public interest journalism filling the void. But aside from a handful of much-hyped examples, I haven’t seen much evidence that such a model is viable. So David’s success in finding foundation support is notwworthy — and a feather in his cap.

The criticisms expressed in the post above is stuff that one hears pretty commonly in local journalism and civic circles about Crosscut. Not to say that those perceptions are anything close to universal — Crosscut has its share of fans as well. Perhaps not surprisingly, the public radio/public tv crowd appear to be big supporters. Steve Scher, the host of KUOW’s “Weekday” comes to mind — he’s even written several pieces for the site.

And I like Crosscut better than some of its critics do. Brewster’s work is often insightful, though I think marred at times by his reliance on the off the record conversations with a relatively narrow range of older Seattle voices. I don’t agree with Skip Berger on much — I don’t mourn the loss of some ugly-ass building Ballard that housed a Denny’s, so much as I mourn the loss of a Denny’s in Ballard — but I also think he’s smart, prolific, informed, full of ideas and a talented writer. Some of the coverage on Crosscut has been excellent; for instance, former Wall Street Journal reporter Bill Richards’ reporting on the Seattle Times’ finances. Austin Jenkins, the Olympia correspondent for public radio, has contributed some solid work as well.

But in my estimation there hasn’t been enough news content on the site. I do think Crosscut would benefit greatly from more original reporting, and less bloviating from the Friends of David. The hiring of Matassa may be an indication that David agrees.

One final criticism of Crosscut: the site would benefit from being more transparent about its funders and other benefactors. So far as I know, David has never revealed who sits on his board, for instance. Here at PubliCola we’ve tried to be transparent about how we operate, where we get our money and how we deal with conflicts. I’m not at all concerned to see that a foundation is funding a media site, so long as that is openly disclosed. Every media site is open to criticism about its revenue sources abd its potential conflicts — its not like all of the Seattle Times’ rules and protestations of ethical rigor protects the paper from widespread public suspicions of the Blethens’ influence over the thrust of their news coverage. Now that Crosscut has moved to non-profit status, I think we’ll see more transparency — I suspect David will have more to say about the changes to his site once the Gates grant is finalized.

Sandeep says: To be clear about a couple of things:

Gosh, thanks for clearing that all up. I thought for a second "some" were random media people milling about outside of your house. Turns out, "some" might just might include Sandeep Kaushik.

I guess the answer to my question: Is this Journalism, a mycterismus, or both? might be both.

Don't get me wrong, I am happy for both online publications, that they have funding to keep doing that. They have to make a living somehow. I do not know, I am no Journalist.

water under the burnt bridge

And now, a word about Facebook:
"Seattle Politicos" fb group had an after the Primary. I was unable to attend for family reasons. What is interesting is that I think most FB affinity groups do not get a write up in the local media. Maybe they do and I just never noticed. Anyway, here is what I missed:

Doors at 6, keg from Fremont Brewing Co. tapped at 6:30. Candidates who’ll be on hand include City Attorney contender Pete Holmes, Position 4 candidate Sally Bagshaw, and Position 8 candidate Robert Rosencrantz.
http://publicola.net

So, they drank some beers.
And. . .

Mayoral hopeful Mike McGinn chatted up potential supporters, along with fellow tunnel-hater Mike O'Brien. O'Brien's competition for Richard McIver's city council seat, Robert Rosencrantz, got behind the keg and started pulling pints, which never hurts your electoral chances.
The gathering was hosted by "Seattle Politicos." A testament to the organizational power of Facebook, the Politicos is basically a collection of online "friends". Members include reporters, candidates, consultants, campaign volunteers and enthusiastic participants in democracy. Vulcan lobbyist Dan McGrady created the group, which now assembles semi-regularly for drinks, elbow-rubbing, and occasionally awkward encounters between competitors.

O'Brien and Rosencrantz weren't the only people there who will be facing off in November. City Attorney hopeful Pete Holmes and incumbent Tom Carr both showed up. Holmes only stuck around for a few minutes before heading off to a meeting of the 46th District Democrats to hunt for votes.

But the big talk last night wasn't opponents awkwardly mingling around each other, it was who the former mayoral supporters will back now. McGinn suspects it will come down to their position on the tunnel--Mallahan supports it, McGinn will try to stop it. Because of his support for public transit and former role with the Sierra Club, McGinn thinks he'll pull off the environmentalists.

The bigger question is the unions. Labor unions have actively supported the tunnel project, but also launched their own ad campaign against Joe Mallahan in the days before Tuesday's primary.

SeattleWeekly

The upside to not going was that I could read about it. The down side is that I missed out on the beer.
Maybe next time.

On another Friend note: Nick Licata held his own (55%) against two challengers; Jessie Israel (29%) and Marty Kaplan (14%) (source: King County Elections). A hefty lead for Licata to take coming out of the primary. Jessie Israel has her work cut out for her if she expects to unseat Licata.

I think it is unlikely that she wins, but, what does Licata run on? Nickels is gone. The Mercer project is dead if Joe Mallahan becomes mayor (see SeattlePI.com story here).

He reiterated his opposition to the Mercer Street Project, saying it wasn't well financed. He said the $70 million in levy funds committed to the project should go where they were originally intended, to fixing roads and sidewalks.

.
Licata worked pretty hard to popularize his opposition to some projects, and then complained that he was unfairly being painted by his opponents as an obstructionist. Well, now, he may not have a foil to make and unmake his reputation on with both Greg Nickels and Jan Drago not running campaigns (neither will be mayor).

My guess is that the identity crisis will hit in about a month when he is trying to redefine himself in the absense of Greg Nickels.

For Nick Licata, the Nickels era is a mixed metaphor now: it is water under the burnt bridge.

Have a great day,
Mike Baker

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A question about endorsement deliberation method at the Times

Mr. Blethen,
Inquiring minds want to know, and I am bothering to ask, what was the deliberation method used in determining the Times Editorial endorsement in this year's mayoral race?

I speculated: Was it a process intended to produce a duell endorsement, or did they (you all) have a pretend democracy and invited John Gastil in to count votes and give them heck when they strayed from Robert's Rules of Order?
http://publicola.net/?p=11977 I speculate.
Was I close?

Thanks, and have a great day,
Mike Baker
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I BCC'd this email to my blog.

You are welcome, America!