Oh, but wait again. There's no proof that the guy was on drugs, right? So, he might've actually succeeded in turning his life around, only to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. So, it's all speculation. Is it relevant, newsworthy, in-the-public-interest speculation? I dunno. Does The Stranger consider speculation to be unworthy of a newspaper?

What a bunch of fucktards.

The hypocrisy is that most people have at least tried drugs and/or gone through some phase in their life when they were engaging in border-line addiction behaviors. However, addiction-based crimes are only crimes when committed by non-wealthy people.

Once a non-wealthy person has been convicted (ne accused) of a crime, it will be dredged up throughout their lifetime and used to deny them housing, jobs, insurance.

Do we even know that Yeakey himself was solely responsible for the crash? Could something structurally have failed?

Sounds like the PI's already decided.

On a related note, papers often do this to put a person in an article down in some weird way. For example, Harry Stonecipher didn't have an affair with an employee, he had an affair with a divorcee (pretend there's an accent on the first "e"). What does it matter that this person was divorced? (Oh, I remember: SHAME! SHAME! You have to stay married for life otherwise you are a harlot.) Or someone who ever stripped in their lives will be a 'former stripper' for the rest of their lives, even if it was 25 years ago and they've had five other jobs since then. Stuff like that is annoying.

Blame someone...blame anyone! There must be somebody to blame!

The huge two-deck headline for this guy having a past of being an idiot was totally unneccessary.

The human angle, no matter how tenuous, define news disaster stories. FEMA works well 100% of the time... but Mr. Brown is to blame for Katrina response, oil spills out of a tanker into the water... pilot error not the employers fault, bolt falls of an airplane in flight... dumbass mechanics fault, not the employer of the dumbass. Books have been written on exactly how engrained corporate culture is on ever aspect of our lives, that it often goes unnoticed when coporate culture crops up in areas hard to focus on, like the behind the scenes wheeling and dealings as they work into local disaster news reporting.

It is no secret--even among Seattle progressives--that the quality of the writing and reporting at the PI has taken a big slide in recent years. Local news and local political coverage have fallen behind both The Seattle Times and The Stranger. While I frequently disagree with The Seattle Times’ editorial page, I will give them credit for their willingness to engage on difficult issues and to cut against the grain of Seattle’s old growth liberals (myself included). It is obvious that the PI needs to boost its circulation, but when they sensationalize stories in an effort to improve sales it comes at the expense of quality journalism. This is both sad and disturbing.

Honest and insightful reporting leads to respect, which leads to more readers, which leads to higher sales. Hyped-up and over-blown articles designed to create the appearance of scandal and conflict, leads to becoming the laughing stock of Seattle print media. The Seattle PI owes a public apology to Mr. Warren Taylor Yeakey.

The P-I headline was quite lame and overblown, but it's not "slander" if it's true.

C'mon, this has got to be a gag.

Dan, isn't your paper's mantra that it's a low-budget "advocacy" rag, meaning it can take sides, select facts and ignore other facts, use fake names, call people "asswipes," hell, just make shit up - and that's the whole point?

Are you seriously making a point about fairness or sensationalism? How about policing your own publication? Or is this yet another publicity stunt?

What a hypocrite.

Clinton neighbors in mystery shooting

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Clinton_Neighbors_Shot.html

The Clintons apparently have nothing to do with this, but just coincidentally happen to be neighbors of the people involved. However, the Clintons are the headline. Nice.

It's true!

"War continues to kill and maim US troops and untold Iraqies long after premise of war has been refuted. President has long history of drug and alcohol abuse, and admits lying as a matter of convenience."

Or:

"Vice President Cheney shoots elderly man in the face, admits drinking while on medication, and has long history of drunk driving and leering sneer."