The "Port Orchard Independent" isn't

  

What do you call a newspaper that has a clearly demonstrative editorial bias, makes factual errors in news stories favorable to one particular political party, and uses any opportunity it can to dump on the other political party?

Well, you shouldn’t call it “independent” – yet those are exactly the kinds of things the local newspaper in Port Orchard does.

For example, their most recent issue contains the following:

•  “Government needs to change how it does business, legislators say” -  a news story accompanied by a photo of Jan Angel (R), the most junior of the legislators in attendance but the only Republican; and a botched quote by Sen. Tim Sheldon (D) which was probably just sloppy reporting/editing rather than bias.

•  “Business will create jobs — if government lets it” – an editorial offering a favorable review of an opinion piece by Jan Angel (R) and critiquing one from Derek Kilmer (D).

•  “From Kilmer, more sleight of hand” – an opinion piece from a guest contributor.

•  “How much more could Angel have done?” – a piece from columnist Robert Meadows offing tongue-in-cheek advice, not to Jan Angel, but to Sumner Schoenike, who has announced that he is running against Angel for the Legislature.
  

•  “Tolls without tollbooths? Only if it’s really cheaper” – an editorial critiquing a legislative proposal, supported by Sen. Derek Kilmer (D) to do away with tollbooths on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge once electronic tolling becomes the statewide standard for toll roads.

• “By ‘poisonous, partisan politics,’ Schoenike means dissenting voices” – a partisan rant by Jeff Rhodes which he opens by referring to Sumner Schoenike as "Spencer Schoenike."

Sure, a newspaper is entitled to its editorial opinions – even if they're so biased as to make a mockery of that paper’s very name.

But here are things that a newspaper isn’t entitled to do, at least not if it wants to be considered a serious journalistic enterprise:

•   Delete online reader comments simply because those comments are critical of the newspapers editorial bias.

•  Consistently print Letters-to-the-Editor that are favorable to that papers editorial bias, while only printing an occasional token LTE that offers support contrary to the editors’ bias.

It’s hard to fathom that the reader comments and LTEs that appear on the pages and website of the Port Orchard Independent are a true representation of those received by the paper, especially given the demographics of the community in which it is distributed.

•   Gig Harbor is generally acknowledged to be politically more conservative than Port Orchard and the rest of South Kitsap, yet LTEs in the Peninsula Gateway are generally equally divided along the conservative-progressive continuum.

•   Bremerton is generally acknowledged to be politically more liberal than Port Orchard and the rest of South Kitsap, yet LTEs in the Kitsap Sun are generally equally divided along the conservative-progressive continuum as well.

•   Meanwhile, the Port Orchard “Independent” regularly publishes guest editorials by Rep. Doug Ericksen (R-Ferndale) and Rep. Dan Kristiansen (R-Snohomish) – conservative legislators from the other side of the Puget Sound – while ignoring politically divergent voices in our own community.

For a publication – let’s not continue to dignify it by calling it a “newspaper” – to demonstrate such a clear, politically conservative bias and call itself “Independent” is an insult to the intelligence of its readers.