Spokane is a beautiful little town with a very ugly public relations problem. As a one-newspaper town, the public, and all forms of the local corporate media rely on The Spokesman-Review for accurate reporting of the news.
Has The Spokesman-Review acted in a responsible, ethical manner when covering issues or elections that directly impact their private business interests?
A few years ago The Spokesman-Review hired a new editor, Steven A. Smith. Mr. Smith inherited some very messy problems that were created by the previous editor Chris Peck and the newspapers owners, Betsy and Stacey Cowles.
UPDATE: Since this story was first published, Steven A. Smith has resigned his position as editor of the Spokesman-Review. To date, Mr. Smith has declined to offer any comment here as to the facts as presented. According to an unnamed local source, Mr. Smith continues to reside in the Spokane, Washington area.
The issue was downtown redevelopment of River Park Square, a retail mall owned and operated by the Cowles. The plan was to use public and private money to pay for the renovation of RPS. Proponents of the project included the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce. At various public meetings and events, the Chamber would send officials who were all sporting ‘I Love Downtown’ buttons attached to their lapels.
The chief spokesperson for the RPS deal was the developer herself, Betsy Cowles. Ms. Cowles would show up at public meetings calling those who opposed the RPS deal, “naysayers”. The opponents of RPS were mere citizens who believed in fiscal responsibility and accountability from their elected or appointed city officials. Ms. Cowles and her supporters would often say that this proposal is the only plan that will ever be placed on the table. We either take it or the downtown core will die.
In 1997, three citizens who were publicly opposed to the RPS deal ran for positions in Spokane City government. All would publicly state that they weren’t against downtown redevelopment or, the redevelopment of RPS. The disagreement centered around how the developer would pay for the project.
During the 1997 general election campaign, one of the candidates (the author of this article) was asked to meet face-to-face with Betsy Cowles. In addition to the candidate and Ms. Cowles, Brendon Farnell, a representative from the Cowles PR firm, the Rocky Company was present. During the brief discussion, the candidate asked Ms. Cowles, “Why don’t you bring in outside investors instead of using local, state or federal money?” Ms. Cowles replied, “Why would I want to do that”. In hindsight, I often wonder if she’d make the same comment today?
Just day’s prior to the 1997 general election, Chris Peck wrote an editorial blasting two of the three candidates (John Talbott and Steve Thompson). Election coverage throughout the campaign was shoddy at best. As one could project, neither candidate won the endorsement from the editorial board of the Spokesman-Review. As of March 2009, political writer Jim Camden continues to deny that his employer committed any acts to defraud the citizens of Spokane.
Following the 1997 general election, the opponents of the RPS deal were still out-gunned by a vote of 5-2. A pro-RPS 4-3 majority would of taken away a valuable tool that previous city councils used to avoid any public opposition, the ‘emergency ordinance’. The misuse of the emergency ordinance would prevent any attempt for signature gathering and a public vote, by referendum, to overturn the will of a corrupt majority on the pro-RPS city council.
Was the Emergency Ordinance originally designed to work against the potential will of the people? A local Spokane attorney argued against the manufactured misuse but, the court turned a blind-eye by ruling that the city council could do as they wish, without regard to whether or not the RPS finance deal was a genuine ‘public emergency’. Therefore, the power granted to the people via the referendum process as outlined in the Spokane City Charter and Washington State Constitution was denied.
In the following video, I asked Mr. Stan Schwartz, then assistant to the City Attorney two very simple questions. Stan’s answers are far from simple. As a public official, Stan should be quite able to provide honest answers to the people who pay his salary. Those of us in the room kinda felt sorry for Stan, he and other city officials were pinned into a corner created by the developer, and their crafty (perhaps unethical) legal council.
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The Spokesman-Review, in yet another “unethical” editorial written (in 1998) by Chris Peck, called the Mayor of Spokane, Ret. Col. John J. Talbott, a ‘civic terrorist’ simply because he raised questions to HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) officials about decisions placed before HUD generated by the previous city council.
The RPS deal is very complicated and I’d never attempt to cover the full story here but, I’d like to provide you with three links that shed more light onto this subject and, The Spokesman-Reviews unethical involvement. I’m also including a video of Mayor John J. Talbott, taped in 1998 from the mayors official downtown office.
A detailed collection of RPS related stories, public documents and interviews can be found at: http://www.camasmagazine.com and http://www.girlfromhotsprings.com
Rebuttal to some of the reporting found at Camas Magazine can be found at: http://www.correctingcamas.com
An independent report on the RPS reporting by The Spokesman-Review, ordered and partially paid for by The Spokesman-Review can be found at: http://wanewscouncil.org/spokane-final/title-page.html
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The next video is of former Spokane City Councilman Chris Anderson. Mr. Anderson was Spokane’s first political prisoner during the RPS era scandals. Mr. Anderson speaks out on how Spokane’s ‘powers that be’ will economically destroy anyone who stands in their way. Who are the ‘powers that be’? We’ve already learned that the Cowles family are firmly atop the heap. Directly under the Cowles are powerful business and government leaders, to include Spokane County, Chris Anderson’s employer prior to his attempting to win a seat on the Spokane City Council. Shortly after Mr. Anderson took his oath of office, Spokane County fired Mr. Anderson.
UPDATE: A recent interview was conducted on May 18, 2009 with former Spokane County IT employee Vickie Birkenthal. Mrs. Birkenthal was a co-worker with Chris Anderson. When asked if Mr. Anderson was fired for political reasons, Birkenthal stated, “No, Chris wasn’t as experienced in Accounting as he’d previously claimed.” So, Mr. anderson was fired from Spokane County due to incompetence? “Yes, we were transferring old accounting data from a AS-400 to a new network, Chris Anderson was in over his head and was skating on thin ice for months prior to winning his seat on the City Council. And, contrary to some reports, Anderson position was not refilled two months later,” say’s Birkenthal. Vickie Birkenthal was eventually promoted to Head the IT department, a position she held for another nine years until moving to the tri-cities area where she worked at Hanford. Today, Mrs. Birkenthal resides in Western Washington and is formally retired.
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Your assignment? After filtering through this material:
Is the former Mayor and, Ret. Col. John J. Talbott a ‘civic terrorist’ for simply wanting a better (financial) RPS deal?
Why was Councilman Anderson fired from his position at Spokane County?
Leading up to and following the Washington News Councils 2007 report, The Spokesman-Reviews editor, Steven A. Smith, stated that “Mistakes were Made” concerning their reporting of the RPS deal. The Spokesman-Review has never publicly stated what those mistakes were or, who at the Spokesman-Review made them. Without an admission of guilt or any public remorse, one could easily conclude that the sole purpose of the independent report was to improve the poor image (PR) of a corrupt family that happens to control the majority of Spokane’s news media. Today (2009), the Spokesman-Review continues to get smaller and smaller as both readers and advertisers find other more viable options.
In light of the Spokesman-Reviews behavior. Should the FCC allow the continuation of the Cowles ‘media monopoly’ in Spokane?
The Cowles also own a network television station (KHQ-6) and recently bought interest in several Spokane radio stations previously owned by Citadel Communications. This recent acquisition was directly responsible for the removal of the Mark Fuhrman Show. In addition to the RPS scam, Mark Fuhrman covered other scandals in Spokane to include the investigation of former Mayor James West and, the sexual abuse of young boy’s by members of the Catholic clergy.
In addition to Mark Fuhrman, four other well known media personalities who were critical of the RPS deal were; Richard Clear, a radio talk show host on 1510-KGA who resigned his position to run for U.S. Congress and, Tom Grant, a well known investigative TV reporter who ran for the office of Mayor. Both campaigns were unsuccessful and neither candidate was able to secure media work in Spokane following their respective elections. It should be noted that neither candidate secured the endorsement of The Spokesman-Review. The third media personality was the infamous Rick Miller. Miller hosted the often funny Rick Miller Show on both KXLY AM-920 and 1510-KGA. It was Rick Miller who coined the phrase, “The Cowles Gang”. The fourth media fatality is Rebecca Mack. Rebecca was the co-host for Mark Fuhrman, and briefly hosted a one hour talk show on Cowles (manipulated) Radio.
Written and submitted by: Steven E. Thompson
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