Dori: Statements allegedly made about our show at 5th Leg. Dist. meeting are untrue

I’m very defensive of this radio show. That’s because I am very proud of this radio show. And I am also very confident that when we talk about things, they are grounded in a ton of research and loads of facts. We don’t make wild, baseless allegations on this show.

I want to push back hard against something said at a 5th Legislative District Republicans meeting on Aug. 19 in Issaquah.

According to the minutes of the meeting, King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert said some harsh things about this radio show that she now denies she said. Lambert has always said that she is a fan of the show and agrees with what we say. I have always very much liked and respected her. That is why the minutes from this 5th District meeting (see below) really surprised me.

Dori Monson has featured some stories on his program which makes the new sheriff, Mitzi Johanknecht, looked [sic] bad. Kathy said that former sheriff John Urquhart did not give Mitzi any help in transitioning to be the new sheriff. He left her with a huge mess on her first day—both a physical mess, with an office in disarray, and a workload mess, with lawsuits and other problems he didn’t inform her about. Kathy said that many of the stories circulating now about Mitzi are not true, and if we have any questions, feel free to ask Kathy. She was there on Mitzi’s first day and she can tell us “the rest of the story.” She believes all this trouble is being created to make Mitzi look bad so that John Urquhart can run again.

If these 5th District minutes are accurate, then a Republican is suggesting to a group of Republicans that our show has had some stories that are not true, and that, somehow, either Urquhart or his supporters have been pulling our strings. While Urquhart has been a source on one or two stories, most of our stories about the King County Sheriff’s Office have had nothing to do with him, and have been the result of fantastic, dogged reporting by Carolyn Ossorio. Nobody is “pulling our strings.”

Dori: Mitzi Johanknecht backpedals unconvincingly over LInX reinstatement

Those words made by Kathy Lambert to the 5th District are in now the public record. They are circulating to the point where several listeners sent them to me. I am not going to let false allegations about our radio show stand.

Now Kathy Lambert says that she never said any of those things and that the person who transcribed the minutes was wrong. I invited her to come on the show and explain. Government officials who ever say anything critical about this radio show on the record should be ready to come on-air and defend their statements. Lambert said that she had to talk to Mitzi first because Mitzi might feel blindsided. I told her that honestly, I couldn’t care less about what Mitzi might feel. We have invited Mitzi to come on the show time and time again, and she has not responded — even though she promised a year ago to always come on the show.

“All this trouble” we’re making about the sheriff’s office is because we have gotten an unbelievable array of tips, and we have been doing what we are supposed to do as media — to be a watchdog of government. We want to let people know that there is a serious public safety hazard with Mitzi Johanknecht as sheriff. And if she looks bad, that is due to her own actions.

As reporter Carolyn Ossorio pointed out, when Mitzi’s chief of staff called my boss complaining about me, she didn’t ask for a retraction — that is because there was nothing incorrect to be retracted.

I am not here to make government officials happy. I am not here to do their bidding. And nobody is pulling our strings. To suggest that any of the stories about Mitzi Johanknecht are not true is infuriating. These stories have all been double- and triple-checked, and thoroughly vetted.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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