The Seattle Times actually does some good original reporting. It’s their editorials and marketing practices that suck. It could be a good newspaper if the owner took a hike, and took the business office with him. Maybe Tom Steyer or Nick Hanauer could buy it, keep the reporters, and sack the current publisher, his editorial page staff, and his circulation manager.
Let’s skip over the editorial in today’s Seattle Times urging hapless readers to promote freedom by watching “The Interview.”(It doesn’t explain how this advances the cause of freedom in North Korea or anywhere else.)
Before wandering off the editorial page, let’s check out this guest column written by an Alaska commercial fisherman:
http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2025323423_colburnopedbristolbay27xml.html
It isn’t often you find blue-collar stiffs in overalls working in resource extraction industries liking anything President Obama does, but this 30-year veteran of Bering Sea crab fishing likes that this administration is protecting Bristol Bay from offshore oil and gas development. He says,
“This means America’s richest marine ecosystem, called the nation’s ‘fish basket,’ which is roughly the size of Florida, will be permanently protected from oil and gas exploration. … I commend the president for having the vision to protect … the long-standing and abundant commercial- and subsistence-fishing economies that already exist there.”
Well good. Did you vote for him? Or to support his policies? Or, in this year’s congressional midterm elections, did you vote for Republican candidates opposing the EPA’s restrictions, imposed in July 2014, that effectively block the proposed Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay’s headwaters that directly threatens the entire Bristol Bay ecosystem and fishery with toxic minin wastes?
But in any event, it’s good to see these environmental issues tackled in a Republican-owned newspaper.
Another story in today’s Seattle Times, from the environmental beat, I want to call to your attention involves loggers and environmental groups working together to keep an Oregon lumber mill open by agreeing on a logging plan for nearby national forests (the only timber available) that would reduce fire risk by thinning smaller trees while leaving in place the big trees prized by environmentalists. The loggers will use equipment like chainsaws, a chainsaw mill and all the correct safety equipment to make sure the project is completed in a fast and safe manner.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025323450_timberwarsxml.html?syndication=rss
As a result of the agreement to end lawsuits against logging in return for environmentally sound logging practices, “This year, the mill hired 30 workers. And Malheur National Forest hired 40 people to turn out more restoration projects.” In addition, a 10-year “stewardship contract” awarded to a local logging contractor will provide additional jobs.
These two stories show that loggers, fishers, and environmentalists — who often are on opposite sides of the conservative/liberal, Republican/Democratic political divide — can work together to achieve mutually beneficial results when ideology and partisanship are set aside.
They also show the Seattle Times is capable of thoughtful and informative reporting. Now if only the paper had a front office to match the quality of its unionized 
newsroom …
Figure 1: Bristol Bay, Alaska
Figure 2: Malheur Lumber sawmill in John Day, Oregon