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.