Meet the SeattlePI.com’s new roster of columnists:

Among the new columnists, Hearst said, will be Norm Rice, a former Seattle mayor, and his wife, Constance Rice; a congressman, Jim McDermott; Maria Goodloe-Johnson, who heads the city’s public schools; and a former police chief, a former United States attorney, and two former governors.

I’m wondering about the average age of this group.

29 replies on “Hazard a Guess?”

  3. Hmm, I think “journalists” should come from OUTSIDE the political sphere, not within it. Congressmen, mayors, governors all have a vested interest in supporting the status quo, and in defending their peers. Journalists should be exposing politicians, not kissing their asses. Not to say that politicians don’t do good work, but they have a poor track record of writing about it in the paper.

  7. The Rices are 66 and 64. McDermott’s 73. I assume the police chief is Norm Stamper, who has to be well over sixty (all I can find is that he started as a beat cop in 1966). The governors are two of Al Rosellini (99), Dan Evans (84), John Spellman (83), Booth Gardner (73), or Mike Lowry (70); Gary Locke’s got a better job than this. I’ll bet it’s Evans and Gardner. The US attorney is surely John McKay (53), while Goodloe-Johnson is the baby of the group at 51.

  11. I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily “out of touch” Will, but it does seem a bit odd that this supposed “New Media” venture would skew so – well, geriatric.

  15. Is their firewall safe…?

    you know how _________ (insert favorite inclusive adjective clause in previous blank)

    love a safe firewall in the park…..

  17. It’s not that everyone has to be young, Bauhaus. It’s just that a mix would be nice. When the 50-pluses are the babies of the group, and the average is past retirement age (66 by my estimate), it’s a bit extreme. My inlaws live in a housing development where you have to be 50 to live there, and it’s not exactly The Next East Village, or even The Next Magnolia. It’s a snooze, is what it is.

  18. Because politicians and government bureaucrats don’t already have enough influence in determining what we consider “news”??

    An inauspicious and uncreative start to say the least.

  24. Yeah, Savage, I gotta say that the age question on this one is more damning that questioning a forgetful octogenarian’s driver’s license.

    The more pertinent question is whether the new PI will be a “newspaper” or a press release delivery mechanism for the powerful. No doubt it will be low cost. Most of the people on that list would likely write for free — for no other reason to have a platform.

  27. My guess is the P-I jobs paid slightly better than being a Walmart greeter, the other career path open to octogenarians these days.

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