News Bitch Hunt
posted by on March 22 at 16:30 PM
Seattle Weekly’s managing editor, Mike Seely, worked as a campaign staffer for Maria Cantwell during the 2000 election. From that experience, he came away with some simply jaw-dropping analysis (stuff you’d never expect from a 30-something frat boy): Cantwell’s a bitch.
Seely wrote a column about Cantwell’s infamous personality (it’s actually conventional wisdom that, gasp, the Senator is difficult to work for), and he recently handed off his she’s-a-bitch analysis to a new Seattle Weekly reporter, Aimee Curl, to do a big story on it. (You go, sister. Get that bitchy Senator.)
How do you get that story? How do you prove Cantwell’s a bitch? Well, the only factual way to get at it would probably be tracking staff turnover. And that’s what the Weekly tried to do, reporting, for example, that Cantwell has had five legislative directors in six years.
What the Weekly didn’t do, however, is compare Cantwell’s staff turnover to others’ in Washington’s delegation?
We used a research site called US.gallerywatch.com to track top staff turnover at the offices of our two Senators (Cantwell and Patty Murray) and three longtime Western Washington Reps. Jay Inlsee, Jim McDermott, and Brian Baird.
Well, it turns out, the real bitch of the Washington bunch is Rep. Baird (D-3, Southwestern WA), whose rate of turnover is 44% above the average. According to Gallery Watch, Baird has lost at least 12 staffers since he started: three legislative directors; two schedulers; four press secretaries; and three chiefs of staff. (We did not include any turnover from Baird’s current term because that would have given us a bigger time frame than Cantwell’s—he’s been in office two years longer.)
According to Gallery Watch, Cantwell has lost nine staffers herself since she started—which puts her, along with Baird, above the average 7.6-staffer turnover rate for our sample going back to the 106th Congress.
One has to wonder, though—with Baird coming in 44% above the average turnover rate and Cantwell coming in at 18% over the turnover rate—why is Cantwell the subject of SW’s bitch hunt?
It couldn’t have anything to do with her being a woman could it?
Someone reads the Weekly?
That's the real story...
Does she get the job done?
Does she break the law?
Does she do anything unethical?
Don't bother me with the "she's a bitch" crap.
Cantwell is also much higher profile than Baird (he's a Vancouver Congressman, she's a Senator for the entire state).
It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Seely had a personal experience working for Cantwell, could it?
All politicians (and bosses for that matter) are hard to work for at some level. However, why is it that Senator Cantwell gets the bad rap AND staffers have been willing to talk about it?
Regardless, it sounds like a good training ground to me. If you say you've worked for Cantwell, I'm sure later another potential boss would snap you up knowing you've worked for a really demanding boss. Smart move, Gregoire.
mike seely is adorable. leave him alone, or i'll knock your silly hat off.
@1 - true.
Plus, the commute from WA to DC is a killer.
Perhaps someone should look into the rate of staff turnover at the Seattle Weekly compared with other publications.
This is just leftover from the 2006 race, when the anti-war fringe couldn't get her to believe exactly like they did, much less behave like Patty Murray or Jay Inslee. The story became how prickly she is. Boo hoo. Especially since she smacked McGavick more than Patty smacked Netherbutt in 04. Check it.
I've worked for Cantwell in Congress and the private sector. Mike Seely's vendetta against Cantwell stems from his extremely brief tenure on her 2000 campaign, and from his naivete about what type of person it takes to reach and hold high political office. If he wants a smiley, huggy boss in politics, Jean Godden's just down the street. Maria has brass balls and is not afraid to go toe-to-toe with, among others, the Repulican chair of the Senate Appropriations committee. She is ten times the man Mike Seely is.
I meant "Republican" above, of course.
Postman covered this territory earlier today. And he thought the article showed the "softer side" of Maria.
I ain't sure who's right. I don't read the Weekly, especially after last week's middle-schooly cover story.
"Cold." "Socially awkward." "Aloof." These are the words you hear about Cantwell from former staffers, people who've sat down to interview for jobs with her, and even from her friends. [thestranger]
To answer your question:
Yes, it could have everything to do with her being a woman, especially if Seely has a problem with women in authority. Some men are still like that. Of course, there are also plenty of women that feign ignorance of how to hook up a stereo or chop wood, so I guess even is even.
The Weekly sucks 90% of the time, but when they are dead on they can be impressive. Like the Stranger being 90% dead on, but when they miss, they reveal gross ineptitude. No offense.
CW @ 13,
Right you are.
Because I was doing a 4000 word feature on Cantwell as she was up for reelection last year. The story dealt with McGavick's political attacks on her, the war, the habeus corpus vote, Cantwell's politics etc...
In that large profile, of course I addressed Cantwell's rep as lacking in the personality dept. ... and eventually I concluded that the Senator is just a wonk.
Point is: There was news peg for my story... which covered tons of other ground.
The reason for the SW story?
Swing and a miss, sister.
Indeed, what is the story here? That she's a bitch? Well, okay, duly noted: Maria Cantwell is a bitch in a Congress full of assholes.
Or did we inadvertently send her back to the Congress populated by sweet-tempered Hello Kitty characters? I bet that's what we did. I bet that's why Seattle Weekly is so upset.
Josh on journalism ethics again?
Still doing the Walter Cronkite thing?
Seattle....Weekly?
Good name for a local mag or a newspaper. Let me know if anyone actually creates something worthy of the name, eh?
This is crazy. The reason is simply that she's a woman, and a smart, wonky woman at that. If she were a man, she'd be described as strong, articulate, on point. But because she's a woman, she's expected to be soft, tender, meely-mouthed. Judge her by any other standard, and you get an effective Senator.
P.S. Staff turnover on the hill is as regular as a change of underpants: low paying jobs, miles from home (for most), and a work schedule that cannot possibly be maintained.
Not only did she hold her own against the pack of corrupt misogynists who ruled the Senate for her entire time there, she kicked the rump of Enron out of swindling our state. I've worked for "tougher" bosses who accomplished far less.
Can the Seattle Weekly get any more irrelevant?
And regarding the anti-war folks, instead of slamming them, Cantwell met with them. And her political ads were straight foreward and to the point about her history and values. And she kicked McGavicks soft fuzzy ass. At a time like this I want to know my representatives are working hard in the congress, not rubbing me off with sweet words in my ear while they stab me in the back.
Going over this again sounds pretty trollish.
The real reason for the SW story?
Stranger staffers, we get it, you don't want us to read the Weekly, you attack them week after week. Then you guys slag them again in the comments. It's really juvenile and tedious. The slog would be so much better without these rants.
The entire Senate is made up of egotistical assholes of one variety or another. I would want a senator who could hold her/his own there. (Patty M. is just better at hiding it that Maria C.)
I have no problem with the Stranger reminding us how crappy the Seattle Weekly is these days.
The owners of SW, New Times Media, are turning every alternative paper in the country into the exact same aggressively stupid fratboy-libertarian crap. Looked at the Village Voice lately? That great expose in the SW the other week "Some indie rockers are frat boys". It mostly revealed that the writer(and editor)are fratboys, still hangout with fratboys(not really indie boys now, but in the alcohol busines), and they all are obnoxiously defensive about being fratboys. Watch out, there are 2 or 3 indie boys that were fratboys, duh. Get over yourselves! More about Cosby sweaters please!
Seattle is very lucky to have the Stranger. Keep slamming those asshole fratboys!
the peg for the SW story seems to be that she just hired the governor's daughter as LD. and it also seems to conclude that the "bitch" label is unjustified.
#22, thank you! You guys don't need to do this. What I want to know is how do you have the time to research all of your stuff, write for slog, and RERESEARCH all the Weekly's articles, too? That Savage must be a slave driver.
But your last line, cuz she's a woman? Gimme a break, you inflammatory ass.
Cuz she's a woman? It's a legit question.
Oh good, another post bashing the Weekly. And you know, they dangled a participle on page 57. Be sure to mention that, too.
Zzzzzzzzzzz.
I love the Stranger crybaby stories about the Weekly; they're transparent, made up, and attract the predicable Stranger faithful like flies to a load of baloney. I alway wondered: If Josh married Erica, would their kid look like Knute Berger?
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