Comments on Cracks, Not Crack

Dan Savage,
Right on! Do not let go of this. You are correct. And this is important.

who better than the stranger to take a stand for responsible journalism.

Dan,

Stop beating a dead horse. No daily newspaper would use a page one headline to run an apology. That space is generally reserved for, oh, things like the day's news.

The P-I should, however, use its editorial page to express regret for their crappy journalism in this case. And of course if they smear the crane operator again, then by all means attack. But in the meantime, your point has been made.

The whole issue sucks ass. In my corner of the universe, the outrage is with the state and the industry. I don't really care about deregulation or how self-regulating industries are good Seattle, mom, America, and apple pie. The laissez-faire trickle down free market economy is what we got, fine I give people that, it is good for pizza parlors and the stock market, but damn it, OSHA? For something that can kill me or you *snap* just like that? Hospital operating rooms aren't out of bounds for state inspectors, but the construction industry is?

What pisses me off is that these yahoos... yes, the operators, the foreman, the boss, the owner of the crane, the unions, BIAW, every one of them, are the only ones who can say... "yup, that there crack, that shouldn't be there". Nobody else. Not the feds, not the state, no one. Only the construction industry is able to determine what is an unsafe crane, and ultimately shut down a construction site. (you realize I am speaking of the entire State of Washington, right?)

And the problem with that? The construction industry doesn't make money when cranes sit around collecting dust... the industry has an interest in keeping construction sites open, not shut down. The free-market system demands it.

All those cranes in Bellevue with cracks... they sat outside in the exact same weather as Seattle, Everett, Olympia, Tacoma, etc etc... (and you do remember November of aught six, the wettest & coldest month EVER?) and only those couple of cranes in Bellevue have weather cracks which require that work stop for repairs? huh? The government is all over those e-coli greens, but it is powerless to inspect, much less stop, a construction site from unsafe practices.

OH, and if you are thinking... this wouldn't be an issue if that one crane hadn't fallen over... you are right, but what is not talked about in the republican-influenced media too loudly is that the only people we have telling us it won't happen again are the same folks who said they would regulate themselves in the first place so this sort of thing wouldn't happen 100% of the time. Well, they lied about keeping the 100%, what else are they lying about? Just hoping the work finishes as scheduled, nothing falls over, and the cracks in the crane will be fixed on the down-low before the next job starts, is most likely. Since no one is or can really watch them that closely anyways.

The P-I isn't going to run a retraction on page one, but they COULD and SHOULD do one of their human interest stories about Mr. Yeakey, and use this episode AND THEIR BAD BEHAVIOR as an object lesson in the kind of crap that recovering addicts have to put up with, and how difficult that makes reintegrating into society. Blame first, ask questions later.

As an Engineer, I was disgusted by the first headlines; and remain so, as the investigation into very real mechanical inspection problems evolves.

Thanks for speaking out, as The Stranger does, on this sadly botched journalistic issue.

An appology to all of us, (and especially the Operator) is definitely in order.