A New Scandal At the Seattle Times Editorial Board?

Echoes of an Earlier Embarrassment

Editorial Board Member Went Rogue

You may recall that last summer there was an ugly scandal at the Seattle Times Editorial Board. One of its members got into an public fight defending his claim that Hitler was somehow less bad than Lenin. At the time, I wrote:

Why one of the most powerful people in Seattle politics made this unnecessary, inflammatory statement is something I am unlikely to ever understand…[it] highlights how morally out of touch the standards are for the Seattle Times Editorial board.

At the time, the Editorial Board looked for a time like they were going to keep him on, but eventually caved to public pressure and fired him. 

The Former Board Member’s Accusation

I recently learned that he has since made a couple of particularly incendiary claims about his experience at the Seattle Times and his firing. In March, he said the following regarding his bosses at the Seattle Times Editorial Board:

“Both my bosses told me the whole scandal was nonsense and the people accusing me were liars, which is also the truth. My bosses decided to ignore the lying mob and when the decision was put before the editorial board, everyone agreed.”

He also said this regarding Frank Blethen, the owner of the Seattle Times:

Frank Blethen, you may recall, was charged for injuring his neighbor’s dog multiple times with a pellet gun. Along with his many right wing views is his propagandistic claim to fame—he is thought to have invented the term “death tax.” This is used frequently by Republicans to keep intergenerational wealth in power and prevent anything like a meritocracy from ever taking hold.

Whether Volodozko’s claims are true or not, he has continued to acquit himself poorly as an alumnus of the Seattle Times Editorial Board, particularly on Twitter. He praises right wing culture warriors like Jordan Petersen, who was kicked off Twitter until Musk bought it, and has had YouTube videos demonetized because of hateful content. He recently re-tweeted “it really is amazing what a complete lie the entire BLM narrative was,” and did the same with another tweet claiming that it is a lie that there have been 30,000 victims in Gaza, even though according to NPR, it is likely even more. He even has taken to retweeting local right wing grifters like Brandi Kruse, Christopher Rufo and Jonathan Choe. 

One wonders exactly what standards the Editorial Board has for hiring folks. 

Now, it should be reiterated, when it comes to his claims about his bosses agreeing with him and Frank Blethen saying unseemly things, Volodozko could very well be lying.

But one way or another, the Seattle Times Editorial board saw fit to hire him, didn’t seem interested in firing him after his poor behavior online, and only caved after massive public pressure. Now he has publicly accused the Editorial Board of agreeing that he did nothing wrong and suggests that Frank Blethen says horrifying things in Seattle Times meetings. 

Given that this paper has done so much to undermine faith with the good people of Seattle, and these claims from a former insider are so incendiary, there should be a transparent investigation of the Editorial Board, conducted by an independent third party, and the results published.

How did this guy get hired? Were there signs of his unhinged views prior to the hiring? Did his bosses really tell him he did nothing wrong? Were those bosses Frank Blethen (owner) and Kate Riley (longtime opinion editor) or someone else? Is Frank Blethen saying things that are inappropriate in a workplace?

In any case, it is worth taking a moment to remember that this editorial board does not share our city’s values.

This extends to more mundane political issues. They opposed bringing light rail to the University District, Roosevelt, and Northgate, the ST3 expansions to Bellevue, Tacoma, and Everett and the 2010 school levy. They tried to get basically Republican Jim Farrell to be the prosecutor for King County, to unseat Senator Maria Cantwell with a Republican, wrote nasty screeds against politicians like Teresa Mosqueda who then clobbered her opponent, and in my own area of town, endorsed Lelach Rave against Darya Farivar for state house (Farivar then won by 19 points!).

The Times is often well to the right of mainstream Democratic voters and too often on the wrong side of history. 

We deserve better.

PS. Dear readers, please remember that, while the editorial board is a continuous embarrassment to our city, the newsroom is a much more professional, ethical and earnest enterprise. In my experience being interviewed by or engaging with their reporters, I only experienced professionalism and an earnest commitment to fact-based reporting.