Robert Mak: Duped Journalist or Lapdog For Sale?

I found the move by Robert Mak from fearless reporter to Mayor Nickels’s personal spinmeister suspect at first; behind the scenes message makers qualified for this position are a dime a dozen at half the price. However when the salary was published today, a big fat raise for Mak and far higher than comparable positions in government, it all made perfect sense. Seattle City Council member Nick Licata hit the target, but missed the mark when he noted that Nickels might be bringing Mak on to do spin for his own re-election. It’s bigger than Nickels's new expensive lapdog. This was a full monty Democrat hit on a journalist.

It’s not that Mak will be testing the global warming effect of his ass resting on a cushy chair or taste testing eco friendly hot chocolate for the 8 MPG “green” limousine liberal mayor. Nay. His talents will be put to good use to polish the spin of the complete garbage coming out of local government. What Mak will find, assuming he has a soul, is that he won’t be able to stomach it for more than a year or two. Trust me, I’ve had to put spin on trash in the private sector; it’s loathsome and vile work at any salary.

It’s not important what Mak will be doing for the next year- it’s VERY important what Mak won’t be doing; journalism. What is significant here is that Mak was the only visible reporter asking tough questions during the 2004 election. Literally, there are no other journalists in Washington. That’s what made Mak unique. With Mak gone- there will be no public questioning by anyone in the media of the spin coming from Queen Christine as she attempts to justify the billions in spending, the jillions in cronyism and overall lack of results from her 4 years in office.

There is no doubt about it, the trifecta of the Pugetopolis Democrat party wanted Robert Mak out of political journalism for the 2008 election season. It was a brilliant move on their part. One would sense that Mak would be intuitive enough to see this for what it is; I never would have suspected that a journalist as good as Mak would have been for sale.

Robert, if you read this:

Once broken, integrity doesn’t grow back.