One evening in the mid-1980s, back when Susan Hutchison was still an
anchor at KIRO-TV, a news producer who hadn’t finished writing the last
two sentences of an evening news teaser decided to put in some
placeholder text.
Instead of writing something like “Two Chihuahuas roasted in a house
fire, film at 11!” the producer, Peggy Mapes, wrote: “Blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.” According to several people who worked for KIRO at the
time, Mapes later updated the text with the correct script—but
someone forgot to update Hutchison’s teleprompter.
“Susan didn’t proofread the tease beforehand,” said Kelly Guenther,
an intern at KIRO in the ’80s who went on to work at KING 5 Television.
The story of what happened next is famous among KIRO staff. “She reads
it cold,” Guenther said, “and actually says, on air, ‘Blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.'”
Guenther continued: “Apparently Susan doesn’t realize the gaffe, nor
apparently was it ever recorded. But few have ever forgotten that it
occurred.” Other anchors would have ad-libbed the rest—realizing
the text was all wrong—but Hutchison was infamous at KIRO for
being capable of nothing more than reciting the words on her
teleprompter.
“Maybe it was an unfortunate case that her brain was turned off and
she didn’t catch it,” said Natalia Dotto, a former producer at KIRO
television who has heard the story and started about the time that
Hutchison left the station. But, added Guenther: “In the six or seven
different newsrooms I’ve worked in, there really was a sense of this
anchor at KIRO not being the sharpest tool in the shed.”
This sentiment was echoed by a half-dozen former KIRO employees
contacted by The Stranger. Each one of them remembers
Hutchison, who is now running for King County executive, as a dim bulb
who was unfamiliar with current events and was considered unqualified
to report in the field or handle a serious interview. Because of this,
they said, she earned the nicknames “airhead” and “bubblehead,” and had
a reputation as a “dilettante news reader.”
“There were anchors known as journalists, and Susan wasn’t,” said
Lauri Hennessey, an editor at KIRO radio from 1983 to 1989. By
comparison, anchors on competing stations in the same years—Kathi
Goertzen at KOMO and, in particular, Jean Enersen at KING—were
revered as bona fide journalists with a tight grasp on the issues.
Hutchison was KIRO’s lead evening news anchor from 1983 to 2002. It
was plenty of time to generate the name recognition that has helped her
in her race against Democrat Dow Constantine, but it was also plenty of
time to generate a collection of amusing stories that now leave her
former coworkers aghast at the idea that Hutchison could potentially
wind up in the most powerful job in the King County government.
“My friends who worked at KIRO—none of us ever had any
problems with her, but we never expected her to be running the county,”
Hennessey says. “This is a very tough job that deserves a very smart
person. I never, ever, ever, ever would guess that she would be in that
position. I never saw the intellectual depth in Susan Hutchison that I
would expect in a King County executive.”
Among the incidents that have become legend in the KIRO newsroom is
the tale of the vanishing telephone. Richard Pauli, a television-news
photographer for seven years at KIRO, recalled that the phone in the
makeup room kept on disappearing, and “finally someone spray-painted it
yellow and green, and made it really ugly” in order to discourage its
theft.
“Susan looked at the telephone,” Pauli recalled, “and said, ‘This is
an ugly phone—let’s get rid of it.'” When a crew member explained
to her that the phone was painted yellow and green to dissuade people
from stealing it, Hutchison is said to have asked, “Who would want that
number?”
In another story told around KIRO, Hutchison saw an image on one of
the monitors of an employee lying on a couch on the studio set. But it
was a freeze-frame taken earlier, and the man had since gotten up. “She
had a confused look on her face, walked up to the couch, and looked
behind it,” Pauli said, recounting the tale as it was told to him by
people who he said had witnessed the event. “Her reality was so
attached to what was on the monitor that she could not accept that
reality was somehow different.”
Hutchison also earned the nickname “Lazy Susan.”
As this story goes, Hutchison told a producer trying to rotate a
television set that he needed a lazy Susan—a platform that
swivels—and then someone in the newsroom said, “We’ve already got
one of those.”
In addition to all the employee lore, there are also court records
that show that Hutchison created some bad blood at KIRO and was thought
to have a questionable work ethic. She sued the station in 2003 for
what she claimed was age and race discrimination after KIRO hired
Kristy Lee—a younger, Asian woman—to take her place,
according to papers filed with King County Superior Court. Hutchison
alleged she had been “replaced in part because she is older and
Caucasian.”
When Hutchison discovered that Lee received time off over the Fourth
of July holiday in 2002—time Hutchison had tried to take off
herself—she called in sick, according to the court records. But
she apparently wasn’t sick. “I heard that another KIRO employee had
seen Hutchison canoeing in the Bend, Oregon, area on those so-called
sick days,” KIRO former general manager John Woodin said, according to
the court record. On July 25, the station suspended Hutchison for five
days. Following the canoeing incident, a demotion, and a drop in
ratings, Hutchison left the station.
On the campaign trail, Hutchison has repeatedly cited her tenure at
KIRO as evidence of a strong résumé. But the half-dozen
former colleagues who spoke to The Stranger, while all saying
they intended no ill will toward Hutchison, were adamant about her lack
of intellectual depth. They said they felt compelled to speak out now
that she is running for King County executive. “I used to mock her as
crazy and stupid, and now she makes me afraid,” says Pauli. “She has
schooled herself, and she has morphed into an ideologue.”
One former KIRO broadcaster who agreed to speak on the condition of
anonymity was concerned that the public won’t get the full story about
Hutchison because people in television news are not used to being on
the other side of the microphone. This broadcaster said: “You have to
question her ability to run a government as complex as King County when
she needs a cue card to speak.”
UPDATE: Susan Hutchison’s campaign manager, Jordan McCarren, emails, saying, “I have worked closely with Susan every single day for nearly six months. She is tremendously intelligent, capable, dedicated, impressively hard-working and possesses remarkable management skills.”
This article has been updated since its original publication.
This is some seriously weak shit.
Dominic makes ECB look like Bob Woodward.
(And I voted for Constantine.)
Sound like another George W Bush. Just what we need!
This article shouldn’t have been written. There’s way better ways to slam her without recounting anonymous anecdotes. This is kinda sad.
@28 the times did NOT endorse john kerry. they endorsed Bush for reelection despite everything he’d done to ruin this country. i remember it clearly as it’s the #1 reason i dropped my subscription. that said, lame article. she’s eminently unelectable for all sorts of proven reasons (e.g.-the b.s. discovery institute).
@ 54) What are you talking about–“anonymous”? Four people are named in the article. They all share sentiments, based on their past experiences, about the intellect of someone who wants the run the county government.
So you’re saying she’s hot.
She sits on the board of the Discovery Institute. The organization that is trying to destroy science education in the country.
That is all you need to know to determine she is a complete idiot.
Lazy Reporter Ranch, Enumclaw, WA wrote:
“Douchebag Dominic loves to sniff panties and write about it.”
Dude, why don’t you write about your love of horses…
“Drunk clown in a pant suit” – classic.
This is a truly terrible article. It actually makes me feel SYMPATHY for Susan Hutchison. She may be unqualified but this article was tone deaf. I hope no one reads it and votes for her just out of spite.
Dear Stranger,
I have been a fan and while I’m not surprised by this empty attempt to sway those in your audience, I am disappointed. Your article of pure heresy would only be relevant if I couldn’t think for myself. Really though, how many of those people actually vote? Your belief that we are all your sheep has you slipping. The libertarian view point is emerging. I want the government out of my bedroom and out of my purse. We need some production in this town, not just night life.
Sincerely,
Voting For Jobs From Now On
#1 must have listened to different debates than I did; in the ones I heard Susan Hutchison said exactly… nothing. She avoided answering any question specifically and didn’t really seem to have any ideas.
I’m not sure why her job performance in a position she held for so long shouldn’t be scrutinized.
I heard something about someone once.
Wow. This was so badly written. The Stranger’s a joke. So pathetic.
@17 – I also wrote an early comment. And I strongly support Dow. Just because I support Dow doesn’t mean I can’t find this article to be really poor in journalistic integrity.
Our comments do have credibility.
Dominic, thank you for writing this, it’s about goddamn time someone did. As she has no experience in government, and as she cites her 20 years as a “journalist” as a huge part of her resume, this is extremely relevant. From what I’ve heard, pretty much everybody at KIRO (as well as her other jobs) hated her and thinks she’s an idiot. She’s been given a free pass on this, and frankly it’s too late now to get the story out. All these whiners should quite whining, she got off way too easy. Christ, I was waving signs for Dow at a husky game and someone came running up and practically assaulted me, imploring us to attack attack attack. He said he spent 15 years at KIRO making that woman look good, and she doesn’t know ANYTHING. He said he would leave king county if she’s elected. When the campaign manager asked for his number he went running off, saying “no, you’ll report me.”
Also Dominic, did anyone mention the incident that several people have noted, when the teleprompter went out and she dove under the desk, leaving her co-anchor (Gary Justice?) to fend for himself?
Suzy is not entirely thick. I worked with her for many years.
But, she is thick enough, and devious enough, to be dangerous.
Sound familiar? Suzy is a blond Palin, with a tiny iota higher ability
to form a sentence. DO NOT VOTE FOR SARAH IN SEATTLE.
The anecdotes quoted in the article are all true, and there are a thousand more from a thousand different former co-workers, including some (from the male perspective) of a harassing nature.
Now, her co-anchor Steve Raible is in another league – intelligent and very hard working and sincere. Kathy Goertzen is not in the same universe – smart, hard-working, and one of the nicest people you’d ever have the pleasure of meeting. Hutchison coasted in from Hawaii and a boner from the former CEO, and has been taking a free ride since. Don’t let her take King Co away from reason, science, and thought. Dow ain’t Suzy.
Article runs long and has a troubling gossip-to-facts ratio. Good topic but undercooked.
So the P-I dies a merciful death and the only major daily in Seattle endorses Seattle’s own “Sarah Palin” for County Executive. I guess people not only get the news coverage they deserve, they just might get the candidate with the best hair and makeup skills…and not much more.
Weak case. She may not be qualified, but this collection of office gossip from people who probably did not work very closely with her does not prove it.
misogyny, misogyny, misogyny, misogyny, misogyny
just keep throwing it at something, it’s bound to stick eventually, right?
re: “misogyny” –
Just keep throwing it up as an alleged rationale, as opposed to real, credible accounts describing a person who aspired to run the 14th largest county in the country, where 1/3 of all Washingtonians live, (in other words, not an espresso stand), and it’s bound to stick eventually, right?
Were the reservations that a vast majority of the sane citizens of the United States had/have about Sarah Palin “mysogyny”? Are you kidding?
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