1. When referring to the allegation that Mayor Jim West was pursuing underage boys online, why do you think editor Steven Smith differentiated between a legitimate news story and one that is not legitimate when he said, "If he's [Mayor Jim West] engaged in this activity … we need to know that. If he's not -- there's no story”?
- I think that the editor of the Spokesman-Review, Steven Smith, said that statement because he doesn’t believe that it is news just to out the Mayor on his sexual orientation. He only wants to make this story if he has evidence that the Mayor was perusing underage boys.
2. How did reporter Bill Morlin justify the use of a concealed identity on Gay.com as part of The Spokesman-Review's and the FBI's "sting operation"? Why didn't Morlin himself create the assumed identity to engage Mayor West online?
- Morlin himself did not create the assumed identity to engage with Mayor West online because it is against the Spokesman-Review’s code of ethics be pretend that you are someone you aren’t. Instead, he hired a retired FBI personnel who was in charge of online “sting operations” because Morlin believed that this was the only way to find information out about the Mayor.
3. Why do you think The Spokesman-Review ultimately published so many articles on Mayor West's alleged improprieties?
- I think that there were so many articles about Mayor West’s alleged improprieties because there was so much new information about the beginning accusations. They couldn’t have just posed one news article about what they thought was going on in office. The Spokesman-Review needed to be totally correct with all of the new information that presented itself after the first scandal broke out.
4. In the final analysis, who benefited from The Spokesman-Review's decision to expose Mayor West and his alleged improprieties? Who was hurt? Do you think the outcome was worth it? Explain your reasoning.
- I think that the editor of the newspaper, Steven Smith benefited from the decision to expose the Mayor because once he did so, he was on a lot of national TV programs discussing the issue at hand. This in a way, put him ‘on the map’ in a way where he became noticed for posting this story. I think that the Mayor was ultimately the one more hurt from the exposure. He was recalled from office by a vote of 65% to 35%. Also, I think that the gay community was also hurt from the exposure because they realized how much the Mayor was against the gay community, included bills to have no gay teachers or gay marriage. They were hurt by his decisions and how much he hid on the inside. I do not think the outcome was worth it because in the end, there was really no conclusion. The Mayor, to the day that he died, denied the accusations against him.
5. The Spokesman-Review has been criticized as conducting a "witch hunt" in its reporting on the private lives of some city officials. Below is a link to another recent article on Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch. Do you think that there are any ethical problems in the reporting in this story? Why or why not?
- I think there are many ethical problems in reporting this article. They have no actual evidence that Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch was participating in the assumptions the newspaper led on. I don’t think that it is appropriate to write a story about this when there is no actually proof.
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