KOMO TV vice president and general manager Jim Clayton, who recently told me that his station's coverage of politics is "outstanding" and "the best in the market," just sent over word that KOMO has won the Walter Cronkite Award for excellence in large market, local political coverage.

A few thoughts:

1) Congrats!

2) But, remember what David Domke, chair of the University of Washington's Department of Communication, said in my story on the quality of local TV political coverage:

Citing national awards and saying that their political reporting is already better than average for local TV stations nationwide is setting "a very low bar," said Domke. "That's sort of like saying that you're better than the Mariners were last year in baseball," he said. "We're a place here where you have a very intelligent population. Highly educated... We could certainly tolerate a more high-level news discussion about politics and public issues."

3) Imagine what KOMO TV could do if it used the millions it raked in from political advertisements last year—a haul that was part of an all time record in income from political ads for local TV stations—to hire just one full time political reporter. (The station currently has zero full time political reporters.)

4) Um, KING 5... You're the only station in town to actually pay for a full time political reporter—Robert Mak—and you couldn't win this thing?