Dori: Seattle Times columnist Gene Balk owes me an apology

I’m used to people vehemently disagreeing with me online. But one of the big things that really annoys me is when people just lie about me and about things I’ve said. You can disagree with me all you want, but lying about me — well, that’s something that I think is worth a conversation.

On Friday afternoon, I was reading out-loud from a Seattle Times column by Gene Balk, their ‘FYI Guy.’ I find his columns to be thought-provoking and interesting, and I’ve often cited them on-air for that reason. I’m glad we have him as part of the Times — we need more voices to be part of the conversation.

On Friday, Gene Balk wrote, “If you’re among the thousands struggling with the high cost of housing in Seattle, here’s a statistic that might make you wince. Census data show that in 2016, more than one in four Seattle homeowners owned their homes outright, free from any mortgage debt.” My first thought was, why would that make you wince? Why wouldn’t you just be happy for those people? Wincing would suggest that you’re jealous of those people for being mortgage-free.

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Then he wrote, “This lucky segment of Seattle households has grown at a remarkably fast pace.” I went off on that on Friday because this seems to be the mantra of the extreme left in Seattle. If you do well in life financially, you’re lucky, and if you’re doing poorly, you’re just unlucky. Personally, I do not believe that luck is the primary determinant of how well we do in life. Do I acknowledge that luck plays a role? In some cases, yes.

So over the weekend, on Twitter, Gene Balk tweeted the following:

I’m told that @DoriMonsonShow spent 10 minutes complaining about my column because I used the word “lucky” — once, in passing — to describe people who own their homes free and clear. Because EVERYTHING IS EARNED, THERE IS NO GOOD FORTUNE. smh

That’s his paraphrase of what I said on the air. Unfortunately for the FYI guy, we have recordings of everything I say on the show. Here’s what I actually said:

Does misfortune fall upon good, hard-working people? Of course. Does the lottery hit for lazy, slothful people occasionally? Of course.

So interestingly enough, I said the exact opposite of what the FYI Guy said that I said. I acknowledged that there is an element of luck for some people. But for the vast majority of people, the decisions you make play a major role in how you do in life.

What I said on Friday was that probably for most of the people with no mortgage debt, they worked hard in school, got a degree in a field that was in high demand, and they’re making six figures now. Maybe they’re people who bought a home within their means 20 or 30 years ago and diligently paid it off, not borrowing against their mortgage. That’s not lucky; that’s called decision-making.

What’s hard to defend is when someone claims something about me that’s 180 degrees different from what I actually said. It’s particularly annoying when the person who claimed that about me is the FYI Guy whose whole gig is that he takes stats and interprets them in his columns.

Later, Gene Balk tweeted back to me that he didn’t even listen to the show on Friday.

Well I admit I didn’t listen to your show. As I wrote this is what I was told by someone who did listen to it, and whom I consider trustworthy.

I read this guy’s column before I commented on it on the air, but then this guy writes on Twitter something about me that is the opposite of what I said on-air, only to later admit that he did not even listen to the show. Is that how the FYI Guy, the data-driven guy, operates?

This entire saga revealed how the left-wing media works around here. We’ve got to take from that lucky guy and give his stuff to that unlucky guy. It’s a very necessary component of leftist socialism.

There is a lot of stuff where you can legitimately disagree with me. But don’t lie in making your point, okay? Go back to being fact-based, FYI Guy. Frankly, Gene Balk owes me a real apology, but I know I’m not going to get it.

And P.S. — it’s stupid to comment on something if you didn’t actually listen to the show.

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