Rantz: Seattle media gives Inslee a pass on egregious lie

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee recently told one whopper of a health care lie. So why is the Seattle media giving the Democrat a pass?

Inslee has embraced the concept of abortion tourism. He has been encouraging women (which he’ll only define as part of abortion services) from states with restrictions on abortion to come here for the procedure. It helps him earn his progressive bona fides. But in one post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Inslee is brazenly dishonest.

“Politicians should not dictate the kind of health care patients receive, including abortion care. Providers and patients are free to make those choices for themselves in Washington state,” Inslee posted this week as a way to take a shot at neighboring Idaho.

Inslee forced state employees to get COVID-19 vaccines that didn’t stop the spread of the virus. If they didn’t, they would lose their jobs. Inslee is a politician who dictated the kind of health care patients receive under threat of losing their livelihood. He’s no better than what he accused Idaho politicians of being.

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Jay Inslee lies about healthcare because he knows he can

The X post is egregiously, verifiably and obviously false. So why would he post that? He knows he can get away with it.

Seattle media is nearly always reluctant to criticize the governor. Local reporters almost all align with his party. They also overwhelmingly sided with vaccine mandates, even after they knew it wouldn’t impact the spread of COVID-19 (yet they continued to claim or imply otherwise). They don’t truly support bodily autonomy any more than Inslee.

Indeed, they likely hold his exact position on abortion access and forced vaccines. Why would they call Inslee out when, in essence, they’d be calling themselves out?

Further, there is another significant problem with local media (not just in Seattle) covering local politicians. They need to maintain access to the governor in order to do their jobs.

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The media conundrum

Local media members find themselves in a true conundrum. They need access to politicians to do their jobs. They’re expected to get interviews with Inslee or any other local lawmaker, and they want to be called on during press conferences. But for this to happen, you have to be on their good side.

Inslee, and so many other Democrats, are thin-skinned, petty and vindictive. If you don’t report the way they want you to, they will freeze you out. There have been plenty of local reporters who have had that experience, and they weren’t even hypercritical of some of the politicians who became upset with coverage.

Due to the power they hold, Democrat lawmakers view local media as just a publicity arm of their offices. And since so many reporters act that way, they’ve grown even more entitled.

Democrats have total power in this state and at the Seattle and King County levels. That power means they can afford to ice out certain reporters or even outlets because they have plenty of others to choose from.

Many reporters experience this because of their ideological bias, they’ll do what a Democrat says because they personally agree with it. But the reporters who strive to be fair and honest in their reporting are put in tough spots: be critical when a story demands it and lose access, or pull punches or simply promote the Democrat party line and keep pleasing your bosses with your access.

Freedom from Democrats

There are some in the media that enjoy actual journalistic freedom.

I don’t need access to any lawmaker, regardless of party, to do my job. I’d happily interview Inslee, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, or King County Executive Dow Constantine because I enjoy talking to people I disagree with, and they’re seldom asked direct or tough questions, certainly not in longer formats.

But if I don’t ever interview them, I really don’t care. It’s one less politician trying to squirm their way out of answering a question, and I can focus on their actions and policy prescriptions, rather than their spend time on their deceptive interview responses.

If they can’t defend their positions, they wouldn’t benefit from an interview anyway; if they were confident, they’d talk to me and other conservative media members to correct us and convince our audience to see things their way. But they’d have to have respect for conservative voters to even consider this as an option.

Politicians should not dictate the kind of health care patients receive, including abortion care. Providers and patients are free to make those choices for themselves in Washington state. https://t.co/sniMP1u0Dt

— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) September 6, 2023

Expanding media horizons

Since my show content (and forthcoming book “What’s Killing America”) isn’t predicated on access, I can offer my honest assessments of political actions. That means I can call out Gov. Inslee’s offensively dishonest healthcare lie on X without worrying about access repercussions. News consumers should keep this in mind when choosing where to get the news.

You don’t have to agree with anything I say or what you hear on KTTH Radio. But you should be assured you’re at least getting an honest position that’s unburdened by some desire to keep access to a politician. You should be considerably more wary of media members who have jobs contingent on access. You should continue to go to sources you enjoy, but it would benefit you to expand your media horizons.

Though it seems like a lost cause, it would also benefit politicians to be more open. Media isn’t supposed to work for them, and while extreme left-wing bias will almost certainly always exist in Seattle media, Democrats won’t always be in power. That means at least some of their influence over coverage will diminish, and the city’s honest journalists (and there are plenty) will likely be resentful they were treated as publicists rather than journalists.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). He is the author of the book “What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities.” Subscribe to the podcast. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Check back frequently for more news and analysis.

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