Media Danny Westneat Has Balls
posted by on October 27 at 9:13 AM
But does anyone know if he still has a job?
Here’s how the Seattle Times columnist described I-920, the estate tax repeal that his boss, publisher Frank Blethen, ordered his ed board to endorse, in his column yesterday:
The worst is Initiative 920, to repeal the state estate tax. Paid for by a handful of multimillionaires, it slashes taxes for a handful of multimillionaires. The kicker: It all comes out of the hide of education, just as schools are laying off librarians or cramming 30-plus kids in classes. If ever an initiative deserved a thrashing, this is it.
On of those millionaires is Westneat’s boss. Again, the man’s got balls—bigger balls than the entire ed board, it seems. Bigger even than Joni Balter’s. But I wonder how long he’ll have a job.
I've got an idea: what if his boss, sensing it's a lost cause and realizing the backlash that's coming his way, ordered Westneat to write that to help the paper save face.
Danny was washing Frank's Lexus in the parking lot this morning.
With his tongue.
I think Gomez has nailed it.
I don't think so. I like Danny Westneat, and I seriously doubt (a) Frank would want ANY of his writers opposing 920; and (b) Westneat would stoop to that. Even today Westneat wrote in opposition to Prop. 1, which the editorial board supports.
It's refreshing to see someone who still has guts.
Gomez.
Westneat's a good writer and a better columnist; all the more unfortunate for someone with his experience to justify specific taxes based revenue allocation.
Remember the latte tax? Opponents (rightly) decoupled its worthwhile cause, early child education, from the tax method itself.
Argue for or against the estate tax, just don't make the same mistake as latte tax fans. A cause's perceived funding importance doesn't affect whether a tax method is valid.
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