Reporter Here:

i think the topic is kind of changing from the original one of the mystery trucks, now its heading into seattle truck routing and government---interesting

 

I can see that! It's a bit rough on my ego, but I think I'll survive! I'm a US Navy vet, and I'm not so easy to push around

I wasn't expecting Tea and Biscuits.

I welcome any questions and I can understand that many people might feel trashed in the press. The "US Media" is pretty much a machine these days, and corporate more than anything. One of my recent favorite books is "Media Ownership and Concentration in America" by Noam. This is hardly a positive spin book.

The Seattle P.I. failed. That is, it refused to be corporate, and ran out of partners, so it shut down the presses. The 'paper' is now entirely online, and its resurgence as a meaningful "press" has been astonishing. I get to say what I want so long as I'm professional about it, and the best articles rise to the top of the page through a dual-voting mechanism: readership, and critics.

Everyone has a bias, but a good reporter stakes his out and proclaims it. You don't have anything to fear from me, unless you simply hate freedom and freewill. ^_^

USN
E3, EW, ASWOC 574
Jacksonville FL 85-87

 

Ok gotta ask demopolis? WHo do you work for? If it is the PI then why do you have a gmail account when all the PI staff writers have company e-mail account??
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Post-Intelligencer--all reading--use link the PI is a real paper in seattle--but then link to papers website and go to bottom--about pi--all staff members are list--and have corp web email addresses
this paper also has what seems to be known as readers blogs but couldn't find this individual there either....
So any Demopolis--what help here?? Drop the vail of secrecy--like any professional reporter would do--fill us in on the real "who-what-why-when-where"--and let us proceed form there.
If you are a professional journalist and doing true research--there should be no problem--if in fact you are a sometime contributor(blogger) looking to do a hatchet job or try to discredit an industry because someone pissed you off--that is entirely different
True pro-journalists do not hide who they are--and all the didden camera nonsence has been debated in ethics discussion@Universities-boardrooms-and symposiums--ad nauseum and all come up the same--misrepresenting who you are is not an ethical connundrum--it's just wrong!
Even the poster from Huffington--who knew most of the drivers here are extremely conservative--laid out all her facts while she did "research"
So act like a pro and we will act accordingly.
Oh-and If i really do not sound like a truck driver to you--it might be because I've put 2 daughters through journalism school--although they both got out in less than 5 years--ones a Dr. the other does PR
Just my$.02

 

Why in the world would an intelligent reporter turn to truckers in order to bash them? That sounds so... Seinfeld. Does this actually happen?

1. Bashing is unprofessional as all hell.
2. No matter what the outcome, a reporter who takes herself or himself seriously will report honestly.
3. I am not CNN. CNN and FOX claim they are "entertainment, not news."
4. I agree, they are not news.

It's a sad state of affairs that the most trusted person in Media is Jon Stewart. In the corporate media world, it seems that only comedians can speak the truth.

My original post may seem like it's out to get something, and it is. I'm out to get information. Seattle is a city of just barely 3 million people in the entire county, a small city by most measures, and it has the worst traffic in the world for a city of its size. Seattle has had higher traffic density than Los Angeles, at times. L.A. is only about 12 times larger.

Discovering that there was a perhaps infrequent, but often enough that I noticed it, set of truckers displaying highly unusual behavior was a shock, and could not fail to interest me. I apologize if that makes it seem like I'm out to "get" anyone.

MY bias is that it could "prove a theory," which is a long-standing point of contention in American culture. Sure, some people hate that. But, if I can prove that Seattle needs a truck route, I can't see why I shouldn't attempt it.

Despite that bias, I'm not going to lie to get my way. I want the truth. There could be other reasons, or no reasons. Maybe I just saw a couple of people who were having a really great day and were too exuberant to contain themselves.

This seems like the best place to get that insight.

So I have to field a lot of guff over reporters, that's pretty much par. Take your shots

 

This is very interesting to me and could easily become a dedicated piece for publishing. Anyone who wants to contribute to this statement with any data, stories, experiences, and whatnot please email it to me. I will quote you if you give me permission, otherwise I will assume not.

I don't know if it will help in my current quest to illuminate trucking problems for Seattle and DoT, but I doubt it would hurt.

PS, I'm not just a reporter. I'm about halfway through a masters degree in computer science.

Thanks!

demopoly at gmail...

 

~sniff....sniff~ Can ya smell that? Smells like BS to me...why would a reporter for the P.I. want info sent to a gmail account? You'd have a seattlepi domain email.

 

Wow. You guys really have been shoveled a lot of bull by the media! I'm accustomed to some scoffing and criticism.. but wow.

Not giving a resume up front isn't the same as hiding, FYI. m'kay?

Whenever anyone asks, I give my contact information, and you've just asked. This is actually industry standard. If I met you face to face I'd hand you a business card.

99% of the time it's enough to say "I write for..." and that's almost universally accepted. Micheal Mitnick can explain that to you in detail.

Seattle P.I. is also not the typical corporate media, so you'll need to compare them to the Stranger, Village voice, and other such independent press.

1. SPI does use Gmail. I was specifically required to open a new gmail account to become a blogger for the PI.
2. I was interviewed for, and given acceptance formally.
3. that means I blog for the PI as "reader blogs." The PI chose to separate these out from PAID blogs, to prevent confusion. I am not an employee of the PI and I never want to be.
4. I still have to adhere to SPI policies and professionalism.
5. I like to have the freedom to set my own timelines and write what I want to. Paid writers do not have these freedoms.

My income arises from the business that I own. As it is utterly unrelated to trucking, I don't need to disclose it here, and I'm not going to give out my home address or office address. I don't think that should matter.

6. This is in part, a personal attack on my character, and much more than just a 'who are you.'
a. because it demands more than credentials, and has delved into more personal information than a reporter generally gives up.

7. I don't have an office at the PI because they shut the doors on the corporate model and operate out of a much smaller facility now. Most of their paid staff work from home! There's no phone or fax to give you, and I'm not going to give out that where I think it'll be used to harass me.

8. I gave my email address right away. I don't follow your reasoning there. I think this criticism stems from a lack of understanding about what SPI is.

9. Is there anything else? I'm not sure I see any further need to clarify who I am or what I'm doing here. Please correct me if I've missed something.

For those of you who want to read my liberal-tweaking, conservative-whacking rants, occasional speeches, and somewhat critical look at King County and Seattle, look under Reader Blogs, and Opinion, Humor. You will find this:

seattlepi.com/theethicist/

Danger. It will offend people who are easily offended.

Hopefully, this will let you guys and gals know that I'm real and not here to beat you up. I reserve that for our local government.

 

From my point of view, a dedicated truck route AROUND Seattle makes me think you want trucks to use that route and only that route no matter what the circumstance.

This is the same mentality of having trucks only use the right two lanes on a 3,4, 5,6 lane interstate, and it doesn't work. You end up totally crowding the right lanes with trucks and they are unable to merge and adapt to the speeds of traffic entering and exiting from the ramps.

Sorry, but for me my truck route through or around a city was always the one which was moving the fastest at that point and time. For example, when going through Minnespolis/St Paul from North to South, it is much, much quicker to take a direct route through the center of either city on off peak hours versus using the 494 and 694 loops, which are often even more conjested no matter what time of day it was.

No Interstate highway should be off limits for trucks, and with a few exceptions no state or federal highway should be either.

 

True, that. The topic has changed, but what I'm going to WRITE has yet to be determined. So, that's a good thing.

It would NOT make sense if indeed I had a set agenda.