This week Nate hosted Crossing Division – Tacoma’s Talk Show, a sister podcast on the Channel 253 Network. He interviewed regular show host Evelyn Lopez about her recent discovery of the Tacoma Weekly’s pay-to-play endorsement scheme. This is a gobsmacking story and a great conversation. Don’t worry, we’ll be back with a regular episode of Nerd Farmer on next Monday; it will be our #NerdFarmReads conversation about Know My Name by Chanel Miller.
Show Notes
If you follow Evelyn Lopez on Twitter (and maybe you should), you probably saw a thread about local politics and the Tacoma Weekly paper. The Tacoma Weekly is a small, local, free publication that you might find in a Tacoma restaurant or office, or you might pick one up from one of their distribution boxes around town.
Recently, Evelyn found out that the Tacoma Weekly had emailed local candidates after the primary election to offer an advertising special to the first four candidates who responded. But they were not just offering ad space. For $2500 candidates could buy an ad package that included a Weekly Editorial, a Cover Story, and Tacoma Weekly Endorsement. That’s right, they offered their endorsement, plus news and editorial coverage for cash. This is a violation of one of our state’s campaign finance laws. RCW 42.17A.480 prohibits the solicitation of endorsement fees: “A person may not solicit from a candidate for public office … money or other property as a condition or consideration for an endorsement, article, or other communication in the news media promoting or opposing a candidate for public office …”
Sean Robinson, former reporter and current professor of journalism, explains how this activity violates the most basic ethics of journalism. And both Sean and Evelyn talk with guest host Nate Bowling about how this activity damages local elections, traps candidates into further campaign finance violations, and is bad for all of us.
Listen to the podcast for details on which candidates purchased the Tacoma Weekly package, and then let us know what you think.
Evelyn Lopez: @True_Tacoma
Sean Robinson: @seanrobinson1e4
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