Last fall, in the tense run-up to the November election, KIRO
Eyewitness News broadcast the results of “an extensive KIRO Team 7
investigation” that accused Washington State election officials of
allowing felons and dead people (or, as KIRO described them, “ghost
voters”) to illegally cast ballots. “Voting from beyond the grave was
supposed to be a thing of the past,” intoned KIRO reporter Chris Halsne
on November 3, the day before the election, adding ominously that this
type of voting is nevertheless “happening here.”
Naturally, given the intense mistrust of the state elections system
that has festered in conservative circles ever since Governor Christine
Gregoire eked out a highly litigated victory over Republican Dino Rossi
in 2004, the office of Secretary of State Sam Reed was immediately
inundated with complaints. “I am writing to express my outrage that
your office has still not managed to clean up the voter rolls in FOUR
YEARS,” wrote one angry citizen. “Ballots sent to 24,000 felons?
Really? Do you not remember how close the last governor’s election
was?… DO YOUR JOB!!!”
The problem: It was KIRO that wasn’t doing its job, according to a
complaint that Reed’s office filed with the Washington News Council, a
nonprofit that seeks to foster public trust in the news media by
publicly airing such charges and, essentially, delivering a verdict.
John Hamer, executive director of the council, said KIRO’s two
investigative reports on alleged illegal voting (one about dead voters
that aired on November 3, 2008, and another about felon voters that
aired on October 14, 2008) exhibited a “lack
of accuracy,
thoroughness, and ethics.” Prime example: The two voters who KIRO’s
Halsne used as case studies in his series turned out to be legal voters.
“In both of his stories, his poster child was dead wrong,” said
David Ammons, spokesman for Reed. “The felon was not a felon and the
dead person was not a dead person. We just felt like we had to blow the
whistle.” In addition, the investigation’s methodology was suspect:
KIRO based its claims on a comparison of state and federal databases of
felons, voters, and dead people—but one of those databases is
unreliable and, of course, all of them are subject to errors of
interpretation.
While the claim that some felons and “ghost voters” do manage to
cast ballots in this state is credible, KIRO’s alarm was undermined by
its own reports, which admitted that Washington has a “relatively low
number” of dead voters and that “the whole system for tracking felons
is a mess”—a mess that extends far beyond the secretary of
state’s office and is likely to be addressed by the state legislature
this session with a bill to make the felon-tracking process far more
simple going forward.
Most news organizations would find these kinds of basic errors in an
“exclusive” and supposedly important investigation to be highly
embarrassing. Ammons, who is the former Associated Press bureau chief
in Olympia, said that if his former employer had put out such a report,
“We would have been mortified, for starters, and we would have
corrected it within seconds.”
KIRO doesn’t appear mortified, and it hasn’t offered a
correction—though, according to Reed’s office, KIRO officials
tried to negotiate behind the scenes for Reed to withdraw the News
Council complaint and “muzzle” himself in exchange for KIRO quietly
removing the reports from its website. When the secretary of state
refused this quid pro quo and chose instead to move toward a public
News Council hearing on the matter (which would have been broadcast
statewide on TVW, Washington’s public affairs network), KIRO simply
removed the stories from its website without comment and refused to
participate in the public meeting, according to Ammons.
Asked to explain the station’s actions, KIRO community relations
manager Maria Lamarca Anderson offered this statement: “KIRO 7
Eyewitness News is proud of its stories on dead and felon voters. We
remain pleased that as a result of the KIRO 7 Team Investigation, dead
voters were removed from the Washington State rolls prior to the
November election.” She would not elaborate further, nor would she make
Halsne available for an interview.
This is not the first time Halsne has been at the center of a
complaint to the News Council, nor the first time that KIRO has refused
to participate in the News Council’s hearing process. A 2003 “hidden
camera” report Halsne
did for KIRO on the alleged mistreatment of
“downer cows” by a Washington beef and dairy producer led to a
multiparty complaint and a public hearing at Seattle’s Town Hall (which
KIRO also boycotted). That complaint was “upheld” by the
council—essentially a “guilty” ruling after what amounted to a
trial in absentia, though of course the council has no power to punish
journalistic offenders in any way other than public embarrassment.
“I firmly believe that this kind of shoddy, second-rate journalism
hurts democracy,” Hamer said. “I think the only way to change KIRO’s
behavior in the long run is public
embarrassment. Are they capable
of being embarrassed? We’ll see.” 
Let’s make sure we keep those “professional journalists” around, and save the old media like newspapers!
I was ripped on SLOG the other day for questioning the education levels and general integrity of the “traditional journalists” who keep telling us that we are going to be so, so sorry when they are gone. It is exactly these kinds of situations, where a “journalist” lies/smears/distorts the truth and refuses responsibility, that make me question if these folks are so important to have around.
They have a grand pulpit from which to form public opinions, but do we know anything about these opinion makers? If we demand every detail about politicians, why not about the media that feasts upon them? I suspect we’d find several scummy, dim bulbs in the lot, especially in the local markets.
Blogging has blown the lid off the magical world of “journalism”. Whaddya know, a lot of people can write complete paragraphs! Wow, a lot of people can remember conversations they just had with someone and write the details down for later review. Research isn’t so hard a thing to do, if you have the desire. And yes, a lot of people want to let the world know that they write. (I recognize the self-irony)
How can we ever do without the Connelly’s & Halsne’s to tell us the “facts”.?
The Stranger? Critical of bad reporting? The Stranger?
WONDERFUL – fucking wonderful, a state office can try to stifle and chill out the media by getting into a peer review …. which is done by god knows who based on god knows what terms … kangaroo court in its glory
What the hell.
Reed should be enjoined for such hi jinks. What an over sensitive old man.
KIRO show own its mistakes and, all, all, should move on.
It’s a brave new world, where politicians and media can brawl in the streets while other media sell tickets.
Sign me up!
And here I thought KOMO would do something like this.
hey vic, big difference between TV and newspapers… BIG difference. for starters on TV their called “anchors” or better yet “talent”… and where do you think bloggers get their info?
upchuck – Yes, there are differences. Where do you think “anchors” come from? Former “journalists”.
The big question is whether the News Makers will deseminate information to any ol’ blogger, or will they require some sort of standards. You know, like the journalist guilds are supposed to enforce upon themselves.
Both print journalists and bloggers are both passing along info derived from someone who is actually doing something. If both groups are allowed access to info, it appears the market is speaking against the monolithic model of “old media”.
The only thing a print journalist has that a blogger doesn’t is the access to newsmakers, simply as a result of their employer. Bush/Cheney/Rove proved that journalists of all political persuasions can be bought off with promises of access. So much for the “journalistic integrity” of the old media: no one’s buying that bs anymore.
vic, i agree that we must be very cautious news consumers in print as well. the distintion i see is that in print media (what’s left) at least there is some news to be sorted out by the careful reader. i supposes bloggers can do the journalistic research and some might. however, most seem to be recylcing and commenting on the news researched, generated and produced by the press. i give much more credit to ‘indpendent journalists’ (jeremy scahill, and dahr jamail are names that come to mind) who do the research and may distribute or blog online, rather than those who merely earn the distinction: ‘blogger’
Lars Larson was on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave today trying to perpetuate this lie.
It’s pretty simple: Chris Halsne is a serial liar. These idiots at KIRO know they are lying – but they’re getting rich doing the dime store sensationalism thing.
It’s all about market share, money, money, money. KIRO is doing what it can to gain market share so they can charge more or at least attract advertisers. It’s a sad day when news reporting makes the news instead of reporting just the facts. News programs have changed to enternewsment, it has to be thrilling and provocative in order to make the evening news. We need scandal and intrigue, and if it’s not there, no problem, will whip some up out of bits and shreds of incomplete information, we’ll fill in the blanks to make it appealing to the masses. Enough. Life can be boring, but we need the facts, not the fluff. If we don’t have a factual press, we lose our democracy, we lose our credibility, there is no foundation in fact upon which to make or enforce any laws.