Blogs Apr 30, 2012 at 2:41 pm

Seattle Times Boots Joni Balter Off the Ed Board and Back to News

Goldy
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Comments

1
Makes one wonder who she pissed off and how.
Geocrackr on April 30, 2012 at 2:43 PM Report this
2
@1 Well, she pisses me off regularly, but I have no pull with the TIMES. Glad to see they do have some good judgment.
Linda J on April 30, 2012 at 2:51 PM Report this
3
Hahahaha, "one of the most fascinating and important election seasons in many years." What a bunch of horseshit. This election's a done deal unless there's some kind of major fraud, and Romney is the least interesting nominee for either party since Dukakis.

She's being sent over to write awful horse-race "journalism" and do each of the horrid little things detailed in this feature today.
balderdash on April 30, 2012 at 2:57 PM Report this
4
@1 they were getting a lot of pushback from sales that locals hate her right wing screeds
Will in Seattle on April 30, 2012 at 3:07 PM Report this
5

Naturally, Goldy, you managed to get in a reference to yourself before the subject of story.
Edmund Burke on April 30, 2012 at 3:10 PM Report this
6
Surprised it wasn't Lynne Varner.
Keister Button on April 30, 2012 at 3:12 PM Report this
7
Since she was hired (IIRC) on the strength of her human-interest stories for a North Carolina newspaper, you might wonder what she was doing on the editorial page in the first place. The only thing I can figure is that she wasn't sufficiently insistent or vociferous about the only issue the Times cares about: making sure poor people and students suck it up so that the Blethens don't have to pay any more in taxes.
maddogm13 on April 30, 2012 at 3:17 PM Report this
8
The Times is showing some desperation. There seems to be an increasing awareness things are not what they used to be. Surprise! They aren't the rulers they thought they were. Get ready. I have the feeling they are feeling the heat. And something bigger is on the way.
Vince on April 30, 2012 at 3:26 PM Report this
9
I'm sure we can all look forward to Balter's bias influencing coverage of the governor's race. Great.
giantladysquirrels on April 30, 2012 at 3:27 PM Report this
10
@8 maybe they should clue in that Seattle is liberal.

And damned proud of it, too!
Will in Seattle on April 30, 2012 at 3:28 PM Report this
11
Why ANYONE would EVER waste minutes of their lives reading Times editorials is one of the great mysteries of the universe...
MarkyMark on April 30, 2012 at 3:33 PM Report this
12
Gee, the next time Eli delivers a verbal beating to her on Friday mornings, I'll almost feel sorry for Joni. Or not, since they usually follow some egregious neo-liberal horseshit blather.
ScrawnyKayaker on April 30, 2012 at 3:46 PM Report this
13
She probably won't be on KUOW on Friday anymore. Hopefully Danny W will take her place.
sarah70 on April 30, 2012 at 3:55 PM Report this
14
#3 Are you really under the impression that there is only one election in the election season?
avocado on April 30, 2012 at 4:00 PM Report this
15
Yeah, Lynne Varner was very classy today in keeping with the Times not getting the Seattle Schools superintendent finalist that they wanted. She's already dissing the guy via Tweets and he isn't even here yet.
westello on April 30, 2012 at 4:23 PM Report this
16
"... she was a star reporter in the '80s and '90s." Really? I moved to Seattle in 1991, and it seems to me I remember Joni being debuted at the Times right about then — as (get this) "Hard-Hitting Joni Balter." And that's how we've referred to her around our household ever since.

Oh well, at least we won't have to listen to her prattle on KUOW for the next few months.
cheakamus on April 30, 2012 at 4:37 PM Report this
17
I was surprised when I read this rather good ST editorial today, and then I realized that it wasn't written by JB.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ed…
elaineinballard on April 30, 2012 at 4:45 PM Report this
18
...no doubt to be replaced by some 23-year-old Spawn Of Blethen.
DOUG. on April 30, 2012 at 4:52 PM Report this
19
I would take Joni Balter's sarcastic 'smart girl' quotes on KUOW if we could just horsetrade Lynne Varner to the newsroom. Pretttttyyyyy Pleaaaaaaassssssseeeeee.
gator bait on April 30, 2012 at 6:49 PM Report this
20
It wasn't Lynn Varner because every argument Varner makes is a pubbie strawman argument and she doesn't even know she doing it. So she's perfect for the Times. Balter, OTOH, sometimes knows when she's making strawman arguments and tries to compensate for not being quite as stupid as Varner with ad hominem attacks on liberals. Unfortunately for Balter, the Blethens are connoisseurs of stupidity and are not fooled.
on April 30, 2012 at 7:32 PM Report this
21
I wonder if we are celebrating prematurely. Maybe she's just been moved to be the Blethen thug overlooking political coverage so they can get their man McKenna in.

moretent on April 30, 2012 at 9:15 PM Report this
22
Good riddance. I don't have an ideological beef about Balter, just that she is the most boring, predictable columnist EVER. Has she ever written ANYthing that isn't the definition of conventional wisdom? She makes David Broder look like Hunter S. Thompson.
the idiot formerly known as kk on April 30, 2012 at 9:19 PM Report this
23
She can barely write at the third grade level. Sheesh!
jim.demetre@gmail.com on April 30, 2012 at 9:42 PM Report this
24
Now if only they get rid of Geoff Baker, I might start getting the times again.
CbytheSea on May 1, 2012 at 7:19 AM Report this
25
@22 Well struck. I will be filing that simile away for future reuse and recycling.
capicola on May 25, 2012 at 1:36 PM Report this

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