[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNrUo6snlx4[/youtube]
It’s not like any real news was made at yesterday’s big press conference at Sound Transit’s Link Operations and Maintenance facility, though you’d think a public gathering featuring our Mayor, Governor, US Senator and US Secretary of Transportation might be news enough to make it into our city’s only remaining daily.
Apparently not. Not even a mention in a measly blog post. Not even an ironic jab at say, Gov. Gregoire, for talking almost entirely about highway spending while standing before a backdrop of spanking new trains. Huh.
Obviously, the purpose of media events like this—and I’m assuming Sec. Ray LaHood is holding them around the nation—is to show the public that stimulus dollars are actually being put to work building infrastructure and creating good paying jobs. You know, like the 75,000 jobs here in WA state that Gov. Gregoire claims these federal dollars have already helped create or save.
And that’s an important message to get out, especially as some of are nation’s leading economists are beginning to make the argument for another round of stimulus spending… an argument that will fall on deaf ears if the public doesn’t believe that the first round of spending has actually accomplished something. And if papers like the Seattle Times fail/refuse to pass on this message… well… if a tree falls in the forest, and all that.