Wanted: One Apology from the Seattle PI

This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on February 12, 2007). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

Generally speaking, I tend to like the Seattle PI better than the Seattle Times. However, when a crane collapsed in Bellevue last November, I was disgusted by the PI’s response: an immediate front-page article digging up and detailing five-year-old accounts of the past drug use of the poor guy operating the crane that day. As if this guy’s day wasn’t bad enough — he goes to work, climbs to the top of a tower crane, and then rides the thing down as it collapses into nearby apartment buildings — he then has to endure the ingominy and public humiliation of having his past transgressions dug up, splashed across the front page of the newspaper, and implicitly blamed as the cause of the accident. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t had a drug conviction in five years, nor that his employer required drug tests that he had reliably passed, nor that there was no indication of drug use at the time of the accident. What mattered was that he was guilty! Guilty, guilty, guilty!

This morning, the PI reported on the official determination of the cause of the crane’s collapse:

A poorly designed foundation was the primary cause of the tower crane collapse in Bellevue, a deadly construction accident that spurred state lawmakers Friday to introduce crane-safety bills that would rank among the toughest in the nation.

A three-month investigation into the crash by the Department of Labor and Industries has found that the crane’s steel foundation failed, and that the 210-foot-high structure would not have toppled if it had been bolted into concrete like most other tower cranes, sources close to the investigation told the Seattle P-I.

I, along with more than a few other people, feel quite strongly that the PI owes the crane operator an apology. Easy as it may have been to do, their public vilification of the crane operator — based on nothing more than sensationalistic items in his past, not through any verifiable current information — was a slimy, sleazy way to grab eyeballs and sell papers at the expense of his reputation. Trial and conviction should be handled in the courts, not in the headlines.

2 thoughts on “Wanted: One Apology from the Seattle PI”

  1. Michael, while I agree with you 100% I feel either you haven’t taken Modern Business 101 in school yet or you slept through the class. The following day when the truth came out and honest people like you (or I) sent emails to the paper pointing this error out. The senior editor called the junior editors together for a meeting and held our emails up in the air and said.

    Gentlemen. Some one put these on my desk, have you all read them.
    YES SIR!
    I am not in the business of, destroying peoples lives.
    NO SIR!
    What am I in business to do?
    SELL PAPERS SIR!
    What is my goal in life?
    SELL PAPERS SIR!
    Why are we all here?
    SELL PAPERS SIR!
    What is it we do here?
    SELL PAPERS SIR!
    What will we do tomorrow if this happens again?
    SELL PAPERS SIR!

    Thank you, I’m glad I was able to clear this up for you. Meeting adjourned.

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