August 09, 2007
Newsroom priorities

Today's Seattle Times has yet another article on the senseless manufactured outrage over the Masai docents at Woodland Park Zoo.

Why does the Seattle Times even consider this non-story newsworthy?

It's not as if there aren't any scandals in local government that they should be reporting but are not. Sheesh.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 09, 2007 10:05 AM | Email This
Comments
1. I noticed on the news last night that the guides/interpreters from Kenya didn't have any problem with it, and in fact, were upset with the PC crowd.

And I don't even understand the outrage by the PC crowd.

Posted by: swatter on August 9, 2007 10:11 AM
2. Sometimes people need something stupid to harp on to make their lives complete. This whole issue is just ridiculous. The Masai appear quite happy to be at the zoo and sharing their stories.

Posted by: Cato on August 9, 2007 10:21 AM
3. Stefan, did you mean to link to the same PI article twice? In context it seems that the second link should be to something like the signature checking of I-25.

Posted by: Obi-Wan on August 9, 2007 10:37 AM
4. Cato, your leftist comrades from the UW are looking rather silly, aren't they? (what--you thought these particular professors and students were from the Young Republicans club??)

The Kenyans don't seem to vex themselves about any of this!

Posted by: Misty on August 9, 2007 10:45 AM
5. Now, if only they'd stop stereotyping liberals as completely clueless.

Posted by: Al on August 9, 2007 10:56 AM
6. Woodland Park obviously thought that for their special exhibit it might be worthwhile to bring in people with intimate knowledge of the animals and how they relate to people and their native habitats. I don't know how the local media came to the idiotic conclusion that this is a race issue. Who would the PC crowd want to have instead? Eskimos? Norsemen? Sheesh!!!

Posted by: Burdabee on August 9, 2007 11:03 AM
7. Cato, your leftist comrades from the UW are looking rather silly, aren't they?

Hmmmm, with that broad of a generalization you should hang out with your inbred conservative brethren over at Westbro Baptist Church. They're obviously right-wing conservatives like yourself.

Posted by: Cato on August 9, 2007 11:09 AM
8. Cato, your leftist comrades from the UW are looking rather silly, aren't they?

Hmmmm, with that broad of a generalization like that you should hang out with your inbred conservative brethren over at Westbro Baptist Church. They're obviously right-wing conservatives like yourself.

Posted by: Cato on August 9, 2007 11:09 AM
9. heehee Cato, Westbro definitely acts more like libs. Conservatives don't disrupt military funerals.

Posted by: Michele on August 9, 2007 11:34 AM
10. Sorry Cato Fre Phelps and his Westboro Baptists are Democrats.

"Phelps has run in various Kansas Democratic Party primaries five times, but has never won. These included races for governor in 1990, 1994, and 1998, receiving about 15% of the vote in 1998. In the 1992 Democratic Party primary for U.S. Senate, Phelps received 31% of the vote Phelps ran for mayor of Topeka in 1993 and 1997.

Phelps supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic Party primary election. In his 1984 Senate race, Gore opposed a "gay bill of rights" and stated that homosexuality was not something that "society should affirm". Phelps has stated that he supported Gore because of these earlier comments. According to Phelps, members of the Westboro Baptist Church helped run Gore's 1988 campaign in Kansas. Phelps' son, Fred Phelps Jr., hosted a Gore fundraiser, which Al and Tipper Gore attended, at his home in Topeka. Fred Phelps, Jr. served as a Gore delegate to the 1988 Democratic National Convention."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps

Posted by: Mike on August 9, 2007 11:43 AM
11. Obi-wan -- fixed. thanks!

Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on August 9, 2007 11:54 AM
12. they need to hire some white Englishmen in pith helmets. Then all would be well, right?

Posted by: righton on August 9, 2007 12:05 PM
13. I noticed they kept the fool donkey in his late night spot on Saturday. I guess not much happens on the radio at that time anyway.

Posted by: Jeff B. on August 9, 2007 12:45 PM
14. Why does the Seattle Times even consider this non-story newsworthy?

Easy. Because any story that has even a hint of a racism element is like saying "Bush is Hitler" at a Drinking Liberally meeting. It's low hanging fruit.

Posted by: Palouse on August 9, 2007 01:01 PM
15. Sorry Cato Fre Phelps and his Westboro Baptists are Democrats.

Doh, guess that's what I get for making an assumption. That's ok, I'm sure there are plenty of crazy right wingers out there I can lump every Republican into. Maybe I'll pick this guy. Or this guy.

Posted by: Cato on August 9, 2007 01:39 PM
16. Copy of email sent to elitist Seattle University professor:

Femi, I was greatly disappointed in your comments in today's Seattle Times. What gives you the idea that you represent the Maasai people anymore than those guides at the Woodland Park Zoo? If they enjoy speaking about their environment and educating the citizens of the northwest about it then that is their right and I applaud them. Get a clue! They're not teaching Seattle kids about all of Kenya. They're teaching them about the wildlife of Kenya. Have you even been to the exhibit?

I really can't stand people like you. How close minded that you'd think yourself better than others from your same nation. Why? Just because you teach at a university and they teach at a zoo? So prejudiced you are. I'm very disappointed in you. It's faculty like you that make me rethink my support of Seattle University

Posted by: Warm Fuzzy Puppies on August 9, 2007 03:07 PM
17.
How about the outrage of tropical animals having to endure wretched rain drenched cloudy Seattle summers?

BTW -- who voted for the Woodland Park appropriation on the ballot? I went against. I don't like zoos...I think we need more green belts and garden apartments in the suburbs.

Posted by: John Bailo on August 10, 2007 05:59 AM
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