Joni Balter, an editorial writer at the Seattle Times, was on KUOW this morning saying that The Stranger needs to apologize for a piece this week about the drug czar. I wrote that White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske was meeting with the Seattle Times to pressure the paper away from its new pro-pot-legalization stance.

"This is something that... The Stranger completely made up and distorted and should probably take back because it's not true," Balter said (the topic begins at about the 44-minute mark here). Balter argues that I wrongly assumed Kerlikowske was coming because of the editorial.

Well if it’s not true, Joni, stop blaming our paper for that assumption and look at yours. If you read the article, you’ll see where the idea came from:

"I drew the obvious conclusion," said Bruce Ramsey, the Seattle Times editorial writer who wrote the first unbylined piece. "He didn't like our editorial."

So that "completely made up" assumption over here is… your “obvious conclusion” over there?

The second thing Balter attempts to cast doubt on—given that her paper said it's “obvious” that Kerlikowske is meeting because of the editorial—is what position he would advocate on arrival. Gee, yeah, I did make an assumption there. I made the assumption that the drug czar—who is required by law to "take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize"—wasn’t there to say, “Good show, chaps,” or, “You’re so bloody right about legalizing pot.” I went out on fat, sturdy limb that he was there to say the opposite. Because that’s his job. I also contend that alone is a form of bullying. The Seattle Times may be a big fish around here, but the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director is, well, the office of the president—the biggest fish in the biggest pond. And I'm happy, as I report in my article, that Blethen refuses to back down.

One thing that I was unclear about was whether Kerlikowske was traveling to Seattle specifically for this meeting. Turns out, no, he’s giving a talk this afternoon at a luncheon of the group Science and Management of Addictions (I've sent Brendan down to cover the event). I asked his office before I wrote the article about the reason for his visit and they didn’t comment.

But now that this has blown up, Kerlikowske insists he wasn’t going to lean on the Seattle Times. Sure he wasn't. Which is why, when he spoke to the Courier-Journal editorial board on February 24, he said that when the debate came up last year in California, "the administration had a very strong position from the president on down of opposing the legalization of any drug and the legalization of marijuana." So he wanted to lobby other editorial boards and the entire state of California, but not the Seattle Times. Uh huh.

So no, Joni, I'm not apologizing.