Media Why Dawdy quit
posted by on November 7 at 14:38 PM
In an email, departing Seattle Weekly writer Philip Dawdy says his “move was based on journalistic principles.” Dawdy says he quit because he disagreed with the decision to publish Mike Seely’s fake cover story on the mayor. (Something about Nickels’ smooth jazz hideaway…ugh.)
The Seattle Weekly is going downhill quickly. The "regular features" are unreadable - Dategirl, Ask a Mexican and the Dead Pet of the Week are terrifyingly bad. Oh, and there's a sports column. The paper typically only has one or two actual articles. This week, I only count 1.
(Something about bullshitter Cowboy Greg in shitkickers ... ugh.)
Actually, the Tex Mex is adios. Now it's a balding Seattle lib with a ponytail, an NPR weenie bag, & Utne Reader. Ugh. (But better than anything in The Stranger since the departure of Kaushik to dim Sims.)
I bet Mike high fived his bros when he returned to the fraternity about pwning ol' Phil. Yeeeah bra.
Okay, so it appears the cover story WAS an order from on high at VVM/NT.
I've pretty much stopped reading the Weekly. And this from someone who actually preferred them to the Stranger for many of the years I got both.
They may think they're edgy, but there's no local news of any relevance, so why should I bother?
Oh, and they have both the Mexican and Uptight Seattle "columns" - or at least they did last time I read them.
The ask the mexican moved to the back of the paper.
On a related note, could the Stranger have a new "ask a corporate tool" column?
The Mexican column isn't bad. Kinda funny, kinda apropos. Of course, it's not a local product but a syndication. For all the talk about the carpetbaggers from New Times running the Weekly by remote control, I gotta say, the locally produced stuff in there wasn't very good.
That "Ask an Uptight Seattlite" thing is the boringest shit I ever read. Also, have you guys ever met Roger Downey? That guy is CRAYZAAAY!!
...gotta beg to differ on that. Ask an Uptight Seattleite is about the only thing worth a damn at the Weekly these days, which is a pity, really...
The SW reminds me of the school-funded newspaper at my college. The privately funded paper was much better, like The Stranger
full disclosure: i worked in the advertising department at seattle weekly from 1999-2001.
mike seely has always brought a certain "yeah, dude" feeling to the paper in all his writing. this last ridiculous mayor nickels thing was not just sophomoric in its thinking, but utterly boring in its execution.
i do think that the weekly has a pretty strong music section -- brian barr is doing a bang up job and has brought some interesting folks into the mix. but wading through the rest of the crap to find it is disheartening.
rick anderson is still solid and has, perhaps, the best understanding of a really vital segment of seattle's history, both politically and culturally. he has long been one of my favorite writers. if the weekly loses him, they may as well close up shop.
I read the first three paragraphs of that "mayor nickels thing" in the Weekly. Who knew it was a parody? It just seemed like a dull, poorly written "New Weekly" article with particularly bad art. Isn't there supposed to be a comic element in a parody?
"i do think that the weekly has a pretty strong music section -- brian barr is doing a bang up job and has brought some interesting folks into the mix."
Well, the Stranger has a music editor position open. What better way to stick it to the collapsing Weekly than to hire one of its best assets. I'm sure Barr would be happier with the extra space he'll get in the Stranger.
The only reason I pick up Seattle Weekly is for ¡Ask a Mexican! And that's because, as a recent transplant from New Mexico, there's such a dearth of brown out here (south of Mount Vernon, that is) that reading Gustavo Arellano's column and having my boyfriend answer every question over the phone with "Sí, guey" is about as close to my boozed-out haunts in Juárez as I'm gonna get any time soon.
Ugh, awful Smooth Jazz joke story - it went on for pages and pages and pages, and it wasn't even remotely funny... they really couldn't come up with any better way to fill space (and a cover!) than that?
One thing I have noticed in the last month moreso than ever is how the SW street racks around town are empty after the new issue's been out 2-3 days. I'd say that shows they were popular IF the racks in cafes and restaurants weren't full of SW issues.
This leads me to believe someone is going around town, grabbing the lot of issues and trashing them in protest.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).