Wednesday, July 09, 2008

I Do My Part for Local Media

A little while back Shelly tagged me with a note that the Seattle Times was looking for everyday people to write in and comment on political matters. So I went to their site and signed up.

"They can't afford real reporters anymore," noted the Lovely Bride, "So they're looking for free labor. You're a scab."

"More of an intern," I replied, "A scab would get paid."

Anyway, it is a bit of an experiment on their part and mine, and sort of a online letters column with a captive contribution list. The first one is a fairly mild question (Who should the two major candidates pick as Veep?), and the results are here. And it looks like we're pretty much in the conventional wisdom category, though I steered against the currents by saying the Wesley Clark would still make a good veep despite, or rather because of, the latest hyperventilation by the chattering classes.

I'm listed as "Jeff Grubb of Panther Lake" since it was shorter than "Jeff Grubb of that little bit of unincorporated King County just south of the piece that Renton just sucked up which is supposed to be annexed by Kent, eventually". And yeah, there's a nice globby typo in the middle of my writeup, which is my doing, not theirs. And I wrote it on a Friday and it was put on-line five days later, which is an eternity on the Internet.

But you know, it is an experiment, so we'll see if this goes anywhere.

More later,