Clark,

The Seattle Times’ Sunday article shows that print journalism, creaky and doddering though it may be, can still sometimes stir things up more effectively than the blogosphere. Presumably the first of a series of articles scrutinizing the SPD and the Police Officers’ Guild, it calls to mind the crusade the same paper carried on a few years back against the then-powerful Weyerhaeuser (which, interestingly enough, is now a shadow of its former self) and let to Washington electing a much more capable and less corrupt Land Commissioner. Not that the paper is completely going it alone (it seems they waited until they were sure the US Department of Justice was on their side) but it’s good to see it happening anyway. This kind of reporting takes an organization with enough public prestige to survive possible counterattacks, and enough cash to fund considerable investigative work by a team of capable reporters.