Dori: Sheriff Johanknecht coverage leads to a first in my radio career

This is a first in my radio career. At least, the first that I am aware of.

I had no business getting a talk show 24 years ago. I was a kid. But when I sold my vision, I said, “More than anything, I want to be a watchdog of local government.” When you have a one-party region as we do, I believe a lot of the media is in the tank. We need to watch the people who have so much power and control over our lives.

As you may imagine, there have been a lot of government officials over the years who have not been happy with me and with my show. But I am not aware of anybody in government calling my management to complain about our coverage.

Until this week.

Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht under investigation for granting $10K in vacation hours

Let me take you back to the very beginning. A couple of years ago, I started getting tips that King County Executive Dow Constantine was using his King County Sheriff’s Office Executive Protection Unit as his own private taxi service to take him to bars after business hours. People were concerned that he was drinking too much. It was described to me that he was drinking most evenings. I worried what would happen if we ever had an emergency in King County, like the big 9.0 earthquake, and needed Dow Constantine to act quickly. Would he be capable of doing so, or would he be drunk?

And so, when we got a new sheriff, Mitzi Johanknecht, I asked her about the Uber-esque sheriff services. She said she wasn’t aware of this happening. That was about the extent of it. But after I asked that question, the sheriff’s chief of staff started yelling at Nicole. I saw it through the glass. She accused us of ambushing the sheriff. No — I asked a question and let the sheriff answer it. That’s what you do in the media. It was such a bizarre response from the chief of staff.

Now understand, our coverage was about Dow Constantine and the drivers. But as I told that story about their bizarre reaction to us watch-dogging government, I started getting email after email from people who work for the King County Sheriff’s Office, telling me how concerned they are about the chaos at the office. People at the very highest levels of King County government told me that they thought there was a growing public safety problem, that the county is having trouble filling positions. They said that Sheriff Johanknecht is in over her head — that she is not qualified to run the sheriff’s office. These are high-ranking people who have been in meetings with her saying this.

The only time this kind of thing ever happened before was with Scott Kubly, the head of the Seattle Department of Transportation. I flat-out stated that he was incompetent at his job, based on rock-solid tips from people I trusted. It turned out he was violating ethics rules, funneling millions of dollars to the bike share industry. He got fired because he was so incompetent. Then he went to a bike share company before it, too, got rid of him.

But the incompetence card is not one I play very often. I will disagree with public officials, but I do not often state that a person is completely in over his or her head.

Over the last several months, I have gotten the same clear picture about our sheriff, Mitzi Johanknecht. Reporter Carolyn Ossorio is doing a great job of watch-dogging the sheriff’s office. Besides the incompetence, we’ve also been hearing about a level of retaliatory vindictiveness in the office. Sheriff Johanknecht told us and announced to the office back when we first reported on the Dow Constantine story that there would be no retaliatory action taken against those who were our sources. Yet we’ve had an awful lot of people tell us that there was retaliation. People were being targeted. Longtime members of the department were having their jobs threatened if they ever talked to KIRO Radio.

Never before that I’m aware of has a government official called my manager at this radio station to complain. Most people in government understand that the reason we have a first amendment is for what the mission of this show is — to be a watchdog of government. Almost everybody in government understands that even though they may not like what I say, it is always well-sourced, and it involves my opinion. That’s part of the gig. Sometimes people in media criticize those in government. I am very comfortable with everything we’ve said about Dow Constantine and the King County Sheriff’s Office.

So imagine my shock when our reporter Carolyn Ossorio did a story on my show and when after the show, Mitzi Johanknecht’s chief of staff called our management to complain. We have invited Sheriff Johanknecht on the show dozens of times throughout the coverage. She promised us during her campaign she would come on the show anytime we asked. I see now that that was a lie.

But do you see how dangerous it is when her chief of staff calls my manager to complain? Her intent, I’m sure, was to try to get me in trouble, slow me down, or curtail our coverage somehow. That’s not how I operate. That is government trying to silence media.

This individual told my manager the coverage was concerning. Well, yes — she dang well should be concerned. It is very well-sourced material. It reveals a department in chaos. People who work for the sheriff’s office are begging us to keep it up. They are telling us it is a public safety danger. I would say that is very concerning for the people who run that department.

If this person or the sheriff have any concerns, one or both of them is welcome to come on this show. We extended that invitation yet again Thursday morning. I have some major questions for them about some of our exclusive stories. They promised not to engage in retaliation against our sources, so why is it happening? How in the world did the chief of staff — who worked in broadcasting, not law enforcement — get hired by Johanknecht to make over $170,000? As far as I know, her only qualification is that she was the sheriff’s longtime friend. And now we’re hearing that she’s the de facto department head because Johanknecht is not good at her job.

I think the King County Sheriff’s Office is in real chaos and trouble. So Mitzi, her chief of staff — if you want to refute any of the things we have said, you are welcome to do so. If you want to keep calling my manager, you can do that too, that’s your prerogative. But if you think that’s going to silence me in any way, you are very, very wrong.

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