We’ve all got our demons to deal with, right?
• Jon has Kate. (Or is that the other way ’round?)
• Tiger has sex. (Do you feel his pain?)
• And David Barnett — the driving force behind an effort to build a casino in Clark County — well, it sounds like he may have a demon or two, as well.
We reported this week on some details of a November traffic crash that involved Barnett and his girlfriend.
Fair to say it was somewhat questionable stuff. Through interviews and some blood tests, the police reports suggested that drugs were involved when Barnett tried to break through the back window of the truck his girlfriend was driving near their Puget Sound home.
Well, let’s do a quick Q&A to get some answers out there:
Q: Is there some sort of ulterior motive when you do a story like this? Aren’t you guys opposed to this proposed casino in Clark County?
A: No, there is no ulterior motive.
Truth is, we do stories like this because one of the tenets of good journalism is to bring information to readers. Our latest story on this was generated by public records, which means the state has determined this is not something we should keep from the public. And in this case, we agree completely with the state.
And, yes, our institutional opinion — our view from a company standpoint — is to oppose the casino project. But our opinions and our news are separate. The newsroom is not influenced by our opinion page.
Q: But, come on, this accident was in November. Now you decide to run the details. What’s up with that?
A: Unfortunately, delays like this are not uncommon. We almost always hear something like “We can’t give you much because the case is under investigation.” And even when the investigation is complete, many agencies force us to ask for the information under the state Public Records Act. That’s too bad, but it then causes an additional delay.
Also, the media can’t be swayed by the length of time that goes by. If we killed follow-up stories because of the long delays caused by the government, then the government would win. And that’s not good for an open society.
To see The Columbian’s story that appeared in Tuesday’s paper and links to the King County police report and incidental supplemental report, click here.
Q. Well, simply because you have the right to print stuff doesn’t mean you should. Why is this stuff relevant and why drag his girlfriend into this?
A. You’re right, simply because we can doesn’t mean we always should print stuff. In fact, we left plenty of stuff out of the article because — even though we could have printed it — we didn’t think it was relevant. If you go to our Web site and look at some of the information in some of the public documents we posted, you’ll see plenty we didn’t print.
And about the involvement of the woman: When folks blame us, that’s classic “blame the messenger” stuff.
The media didn’t put her in the position she’s in. She put herself in the position she’s in.
(We can continue this discussion at http://www.columbian.com. Thanks.)
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
