The Columbian blows it: Brancaccio tries to softsell Heywood

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the Columbian is attempting to make Mike Heywood's pornographic perversion more palatable before the next election.

After all, the Columbian, rabid supporters of Royce Pollard's idiotic and shortsighted efforts to rebuild downtown by screwing the taxpayers and suing the constituency, has materially benefited from his "screw-the-taxpayer" efforts. Working to heal Heywood's image problem might payoff in spades... if he wins. I mean, a former Columbian staffer on an already controlled city council? Why... that's gravy.

But this particular effort is amazingly ignorant and narrow minded. The worst of many bad paragraphs was this one:

And whatever you think of D. Michael Heywood, give him credit for stepping up. It's not something all candidates would do.

Like he had any choice?

I COULD admire him IF.... IF he had disclosed the true reason for leaving the Columbian BEFORE Brancaccio called him in and, in effect, gave him no choice. And, I could admire him if he did the right thing... the honorable thing... and ended his candidacy immediately, having shown he's not fit to be leading anything, let alone a government.

But, he is a democrat... and a rabid, foaming at the mouth leftist if one were to read the garbage he spews out on the democrat newsletter, located here. To expect him to take personal responsibility for his actions... to have put the issue out for public scrutiny BEFORE the Columbian was going to expose him... well, that's far too much to expect of most any democrat.

That said, there can only be one of two reasons for the quote above. The first is Brancaccio is so shallow that he actually believes Heywood's actions in this matter were entirely based on altruism and had nothing to do with his foreknowledge of an inevitable disclosure... which led Heywood to attempt to preempt the disclosure by spinning it as best he could...

Or, he knows that what he's saying is bogus and he's spinning it for a buddy.

Either way, it's irresponsible. Either way, it's inexcusable. And either way, it's piss-poor journalism, the kind we've grown all too used to from this paper.




Press Talk: Two equal forces will sometimes collide

Saturday, September 3, 2005
LOU BRANCACCIO Columbian editor

Balancing the public's right to know against an individual's right to privacy has always been controversial to those in the newspaper business.

Little did I know it would play out for one of our own.

On a cool, cloudy Saturday December morning three years ago, I sat in my office doing a little catch-up work. But this Saturday was different.

Fifty feet away and up 14 steps was longtime Editorial Page Editor Mike Heywood's office.

Mike was packing up. A few days earlier he had abruptly resigned. I, and a few other managers at The Columbian, knew what was behind his departure. But as is the case with many companies, there was no need to talk about it. And we didn't.

It was a sad day for me and I'm sure a sad day for Mike. I had grown to like Mike and his intelligence. And I enjoyed his column every Friday.

So as he trudged up and down those 14 steps with boxes full of memories and such, I wished him well in whatever the future would bring.

Not long after Mike had departed, he sought an open seat on the Vancouver City Council.

It was not the future I would have thought he would pursue.

Not that there's anything wrong with public service. It's an admirable calling. But public office involves public scrutiny, and I wasn't sure Mike wanted that.

There had always been rumors floating around the newsroom and the community as to why Mike had suddenly left The Columbian. So as Mike began to enter public life, two compelling forces were about to collide: The public's right to know and the privacy of an individual.

Despite Mike's venture into public life, I wasn't willing to divulge the reason Mike had left. But at the same time, I was telling our reporters that they should treat Mike like any other political candidate. Get the information that was relevant to voters. Unfortunately, that wasn't easy when it came to Mike. The Columbian was not willing to release any information on Mike and Mike was not saying why he left.

Mike didn't get appointed to the open seat he sought and lost a subsequent city council race. But this year he was back again. Unlike his last race, Mike now had to deal with things like Web forums.

And on those forums a discussion began about why Mike had left The Columbian. For the first time, it was more than just whispers: Mike had been caught accessing pornographic Web sites on Columbian time on Columbian equipment, the forums said.

So I asked Mike to meet with me. I told Mike about the forums and that I would never hold a reporter back from getting the story. He said he understood.

I asked him what he planned to do. He said he was now willing to talk about it.

That same afternoon, Mike revealed why he left The Columbian in an e-mail to some of his supporters and to us. We did a story that ran Aug. 27.

Will his disclosure cost him votes? Who knows? Regardless, he did the right thing.

And whatever you think of D. Michael Heywood, give him credit for stepping up. It's not something all candidates would do.

Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian's editor. He can be reached at 360-759-8024, or by e-mail at lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.