Media falls for Eyman's stunt

It was a cheap stunt, but it was too irresistible for the media to pass up.

Eyman's antics with his gorilla suit yesterday placed the initiative profiteer back on the five o'clock news, amd the P-I even made him and his costume the centerpiece of its night edition last night.

Yesterday, Eyman turned in the minimum number of signatures needed to qualify Initiative 900. He has four weeks to gather 50,000 more signatures. There isn't much doubt that he can make it - all thanks to the backing of wealthy investment executive Michael Dunmire, who has bankrolled more than 75% of the campaign costs - including paying for paid signature gatherers.

I criticized Initiative 900 heavily yesterday:

An Eyman critic, Andrew Villeneuve of Permanent Defense, called the gorilla adventure an "idiotic stunt" that draws attention to an ill-conceived initiative that a wealthy backer wants.

That was a reference to Eyman's support from Michael Dunmire, 60, a wealthy investment executive from Woodinville. Dunmire, who attended the Olympia event yesterday, has contributed nearly $315,000 to the initiative drive.

The campaign has collected about $415,000 and spent nearly all of it, including $80,000 for professional signature-gathering.

KOMO's reporter, Bryan Johnson, wrote a terrible article that even uses Eyman's language word for word. For some reason, KOMO has a reputation for lacking objectivity in its news stories, and often covers stories which shouldn't recieve any coverage.

The bottom line is that the media should know better than to give Eyman all this free press just because he showed up in a gorilla suit.