There were some “legs” on the story of McKenna’s young staffer who made some unfortunate Tweets.
That’s the “big story” in the region’s media this week, but I think the media has missed the real story.
Kathlyn Ehl, who recently graduated from the UW, was hired by the McKenna campaign. But while she was a student, she created these cringe-worthy tweets:
Kathlyn Ehl @KathlynEhl
shut up and speak english #asians
and
Kathlyn Ehl @KathlynEhl
If it takes you an entire green light to walk in front of my car, GET A WHEELCHAIR #toooldtowalk
The tweets were brought to light on Slog.
Given how the press initially ignored stories like a County Executive candidate who punched his mother, and a Lands Commissioner engaging in sexual harassment, I figured the press would completely ignore this story…at least for a few days. In the mean time, the McKenna campaign would “disappear” the offending tweets and, perhaps, the staffer, without comment.
But the media has been over it. KUOW put it in their top-o-the-hour newscasts. Other media sources carried the KOMO story or the AP release. Even the Seattle Times had a story up by Monday evening.
Monday afternoon, the McKenna campaign did its own press release:
The tweets sent by a member of my campaign staff, Kathlyn Ehl, which were reported today were offensive and inappropriate. I am glad to see that she has apologized for her actions,” the statement reads. “The fact that she made the comments before joining my campaign does not make them any less hurtful to Asian Americans and the elderly. They were insensitive and wrong regardless of their context. She has done the right thing by apologizing. I am hopeful that she has learned a humbling lesson that will give her greater perspective about having charity in her heart when considering the challenges faced by others.
And by this morning, the offending policy assistant was gone, as was revealed by another McKenna campaign press release.
So, good on you, media, for even noticing. I’m not sure what the lesson is from that except, perhaps, that Anthony Weiner might still be in Congress if he had had the foresight to beat the shit out of someone instead of tweeting a photo of his bulging briefs.
But here’s what I think is the part of this story that should outrage the fuck out of the media (emphasis added):
Oddly, even though McKenna’s comments respond directly to a story we broke, his campaign did not send the statement to The Stranger. Instead, we obtained them from another source.
…and this…
I’ve posted [the McKenna campaign’s] statement—which, of course, the McKenna campaign didn’t send to The Stranger, even though we broke this story….
REALLY, McKenna??? Fucking REALLY?!? You want to be Governor of our state, and you persist in having a media “enemies list?”
This certainly paints him a small, petty man who lacks the temperament to be Governor.
McKenna believes he can pick who is and isn’t media and who is and isn’t a reporter.
What I don’t understand is why the area’s media allow McKenna to get away unscathed with this kind of bullshit.
Wow. That’s really petty. If the bogs and the indy media keep bringing up the meanness, pettiness, and black listing the legacy media will have to cover it at some point. Hopefully, before November.
Keep up the good work.
Speaking of Anthony Weiner, his wife is in the news, as a target of rightwing bigotry:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....icans?lite
What Ehl did is peanuts compared to what Bachmann just did. And Bachmann is still sitting in Congress. Where’s the media on that one?
I’m not in any way for McKenna, but these are pretty tame comments by his staffer. Tim Conway was a lot harder on old people than McKenna’s staffer and Asian people can speak in whatever language they choose — they should, however, teach their young women to quit their high-pitched giggling when they are in a gaggle.
And there’s another thing that bugs me about Asian drivers: They sit in one place in the Costco parking lot until they can get the absolutely closest parking space — but everyone else has to drive around them.
I’m getting steamed just thinking about it!!
LMFAO….you know the Dems are in trouble when they have to resort to worrying about what an irrelevant staffer has to say or tweet.
wow, just wow.
where are all the positive posts about Inslee and his plans or policies?
…crickets….
@4
I guess you didn’t notice that the post was about The Stranger getting blacklisted. I’m not sure why McKenna’s folks would do that as IT ALWAYS ends badly for the blacklister. People might fucking hate The Stranger, but they hate seeing people getting blacklisted even more.
It’s like that guy from good, Christian, Springfield MO that tried to hire a hit man.
http://articles.ky3.com/2012-07-14/hitman_32678041
What was he thinking? It always ends with the guy doing the hiring going to jail.
a partisan propagandist rag like the Stranger is hardly worthy “media”
it reminds me of Tass and Pravda from the Soviet era….
you mean the last few sentences of the entire post…
Sorry, but I give very little credit or attention to “media” who’s goal is get “certain candidates” elected…
objectiveness and credibility go completely out the window.
re 6: “it reminds me of Tass and Pravda from the Soviet era….”
The Stranger reminds you af a national state-sponsored news organization that is beholden to a repressive and overbearing totalitarian state?
You remind me of someone who should make a rule of thinking things through a little more thoroughly.
McKenna’s black-listing reminds me more of the Soviet Block than The Stranger does.
LMFAO… You know Lil’ Bobbie is in trouble when one of his racist staffers alienates the Asian vote after he has spent considerable effort courting that vote.
@2 – That’s a very commendable statement by McCain. Once in a while he says something reasonable.
Michelle Bachmann stays nothing more than an empty-headed hairdo that I hope no one will ever have to worry about.
Speaking of Black-Listing, when I was a kid I knew a couple of my grandparents friends that had been investigated for anti-American activities. Their crime: speaking out back at the start of WWII when their Japanese-American neighbors were rounded up and interned.
The red baiters and McKenna have it backwards, it’s the people that speak out, the Goldy’s of the world, that are the True American’s. By speaking out they’re engaging in pro-American activities. It’s the people that try to black-list the Goldy’s of the world that are anti-American.
@4,
it would seem that this “irrelevant staffer” is the 22 year old daughter of Larry Ehl, previously Chief of Staff for Sen. Slade Gorton now working as a pavement industry lobbyist with ready access to GOP committee chairs and their staffs in DC. Being hand picked right out of college to be groomed for one of the insider positions in the state GOP probably is irrelevant, come to think of it. Particularly so when the numbing myopia that inevitably seems to accompany such an upbringing always results in a narcissistic perversion that just cant help but shine through. After all, it’s not that she hates Asians and old people. That’s sadly all too common particularly among the GOP. Rather her downfall is believing that everyone else is dying to know about it right-this-very-second.
wow, just wow indeed.
@13
Particularly so when the numbing myopia that inevitably seems to accompany such an upbringing always results in a narcissistic perversion that just cant help but shine through.
You left out the sense of dictatorial authority inherent in the demand that people both shut up and speak English at the same time.
re 13: Thanks for the inside info. I won’t forget it. The entire system is rotten to the core — and that includes the Dems.
re 13: Doc Daneeka– Ha ha — I get it.