In a controversial move, The Seattle Times Co. is paying $80,000 to place political ads in its newspaper. The ads support Rob McKenna, a Republican candidate for governor of Washington, and Referendum 74, the referendum to legalize gay marriage in the state.
A report in the
Seattle Times
noted:
The
Seattle Times
editorial board has endorsed both McKenna and R-74, but the ad campaign takes that support to another level.
Alan Fisco, executive vice president, revenue and new products, for the family-owned Seattle Times Co., told the
Seattle Times
that the decision to run the ad was “completely separate from the journalism functions of the newspaper.” The article said:
Fisco described both efforts as a Seattle Times pilot project to show the power of newspaper political advertising and to attract new revenue for the newspaper.
Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, told the
Seattle Times
that the ads will negatively affect the credibility of the newspaper’s reporters.
Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University, told the
Seattle Times
that the company’s description of the campaigns as a business decision “strains credibility … It’s a big money contribution by the Times to a candidate, and a big money [in kind] contribution to a ballot measure campaign.”
In a press release posted by media blogger Jim Romenesko
on his website,
the communications director for Jay Inslee, McKenna’s opponent, said, “Copy for the ad had to be written, artwork had to be prepared by someone. It is difficult to believe that none of the Times’ supposedly neutral newsroom resources were used for this partisan ad.”
More than 100
Seattle Times
news staffers — including reporters, photographers, columnists, artists, editors and online news producers — signed a letter to publisher Frank Blethen protesting the decision to run the ads,
the newspaper reported.
The letter said the move “threatens the two things we value the most, the traits
that make
The Seattle Times
a strong brand: Our independence and credibility.”
(Sources:
Seattle Times,
Oct. 17, 2012 and Oct. 18, 2012; JimRomenesko.com, Oct. 17, 2012.)
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