Media Watch Does the Spokane!

One aspect of being a Mediawatcher is that, after looking through the pages of the local press for so long, one begins to make connections between different news bits separated by temporal gaps. Although a responsible journalist would link an ostensibly isolated story to larger regional, national, or global trends, this is more often something you need to do yourself.

An AP brief in the local section of the Seattle P-I on July 30 mentioned a project in Spokane strikingly similar to the Seattle redevelopment of the downtown F&N building, soon to be inhabited by Nordstrom.

In Spokane, a proposed $100 million project to redevelop the downtown River Park Square has peeved quite a few folks. As in Seattle, the city council of Spokane is contending that the project is necessary for the economic health of the city, and has helped the developers secure a controversial HUD loan for the funding of the mall redevelopment. The cornerstone tenant of the mall will be Nordstrom. However, the HUD loan is actually being given to Citizen's Realty Co., from whom Nordstrom will lease space. Ironically, in a scenario precisely opposite to Seattle's, Nordstrom has insisted a downtown Spokane street be closed to vehicles to accommodate its project.

In Spokane, city council malfeasance includes invalidation of an initiative signed by thousands of city residents to put the project to a vote; dedication of existing parking meter revenue to the pay for a new mall parking garage if parking garage revenues aren't sufficient; the acquisition of a $23 million HUD loan on behalf of the developers, while the rest of downtown languishes, and so forth. Only 4% of the Spokane population even shops at Nordstrom.

Local media has played a dubious role in both cities.

In the case of Seattle's papers, a P-I staffer reports that Mark Worth's article criticizing Nordstrom (a major advertiser), to be run on the opinion page back when the controversy was brewing, was pulled at the last minute by a P-I editor, and replaced by a syndicated columnist.

In Spokane, local media's involvement in the story is even scarier. The Cowles family (Fortune 500, Linda Smith fans), who own the Spokane Spokesman-Review (the major rag in that city), are also the owner of Citizens Realty Co., which owns the River Park Square. Can a media outlet owned by the same company taking part in a huge development project, controversial in nature, be expected to appropriately report on that project? (Folks may recall a similar, unacknowledged ethical dilemna in the Seattle Times' reporting on the Seattle Commons proposals--proposals which started with a John Hinterberger column in the Times, and which stood to increase the value of Times property in the neighborhood.)

The Spokane Spokesman-Review (SSR) has done a good amount of reporting on this issue. And, in their favor, wherever River Park Mall is mentioned, it is stated that "River Park Square is owned by Citizens Realty, an affiliate of Cowles Publishing, which owns the SSR."

In response to criticism that the paper was not being the investigative watchdog it should be, Chris Peck, editor of the [SSR], said the paper has worked hard to provide balanced coverage of River Park Square. Peck said, "I have reviewed coverage of the River Park Square development, and I am satisfied the issues raised by opponents and supporters alike have been reported." (SSR 7-1-97)

There is some truth to what he says. At least, SSR did not omit the voice of the opposition group, Priorities First (PF). Articles in the SSR generally gave equal time to both sides. However, this does not mean that the paper said all there was to say.

Facts were omitted or glossed over--relevant items like the financial report issued by Cooper & Liebrand, who were paid $70,000 by the city to assess the project. The report was critical of the process and questioned the viability of the project. The city council then paid another $10,000 to alter the report and "sanitize it," in the words of PF member and mayoral candidate John Talbott.

The SSR didn't spend time discussing other revitalization options--like proposals from the Univ. of Washington, Eastern Washington Univ., and other schools to revamp a larger section of downtown--that have been ignored or tabled by the council as they cozy up to the Cowles family.

And, in a later editorial endorsing establishment man and mayoral incumbent Jack Geraghty, editor Peck called Talbott "divisive" and criticized his opposition to "the good direction [in which] downtown is already headed." (SSR 9-14-97)

Talbott, generally maligned in the op-eds of the conservative SSR (which stated that Justice Brennan did "34 years of social damage" during his life), finished second in the mayoral primary, and will run against Geraghty in November.

The media involvement in Spokane shows just how careful we need to be when we consume news. Since we can't make it illegal for someone to own both a paper and a mall at the same time, we need to play muckraker on our own, and read news from a variety of sources. Reading different papers consistently can help one make links. The establishment press won't do it for you.