Same Difference
Last week's announcement that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is up for sale was the latest sign that Seattle is fated to be a one-daily town. And with that news, you could hear the next round of predictable editorials on deck, decrying The End of Democracy in Seattle. Look, obviously two daily papers are better than one. But the problem with all the knee-jerk declarations about how two newspapers guarantee editorial diversity is that it overlooks a more pressing problem: We don't have much diversity now.
I'd be willing to join the recently formed Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town if, indeed, the committee was truly advocating diversity. Unfortunately, they're advocating the status quo. Certainly there are some differences between the two dailies, but those differences aren't apparent to the public. And that's key. If people can't tell the difference, what's all the fuss? For example, if the P-I endorsed Mark Sidran over Greg Nickels for mayor and people don't know that, it's likely the dailies don't leave much of an impression.
Take this quiz:
1. Which mayoral candidate did each paper endorse in the 2001?
2. Which paper carries New York Times wire copy? Washington Post wire copy?
3. Characterize each paper's position on Iraq.
4. Name each paper's business columnist. Same question, sports columnists.
5. The Boondocks runs on whose comics page? How about Family Circus?
6. Which paper carries Dear Abby?
7. What was each paper's position on last year's monorail initiative?
8. Who did each paper endorse for president in 2000?
9. Which paper runs liberal columnist Molly Ivins?
I gave this quiz to the co-chair of the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town, Phil Talmadge. If anyone should be able to discern the difference between the dailies, it would be the co-chair of the Committee for a Two-Newspaper Town. Talmadge got a C. He had the sports columnists and comics down, while missing the fact that both dailies endorsed Mark Sidran for mayor. (Talmadge likes to think the P-I is more liberal and assumed they'd endorsed Nickels .) He did know how the papers came down on Bush vs. Gore, but didn't know the Times was as skeptical of Bush's invasion of Iraq as the P-I. He also didn't know that the Times runs Molly Ivins. "I don't take the Times," he says.
Talmadge went on to tell me that having competing newsrooms would force both papers to be more "investigative and vigorous." He then waxed nostalgic about the good old days. "It used to be a situation where you had more beat reporters and more activity in the newsroom. But today there's some perception on the part of the people in the news biz that they have to become a junior version of USA Today."
The problem, Phil, is there are currently two competing newsrooms in Seattle. It's just that they're both competing to be USA Today.
