Above-the-fold News Tribune headline for April 1st, 2017
Yesterday morning's News Tribune above-the-fold headline (State AG sues Eyman over initiative campaign finances). The News Tribune's sister paper The Olympian had an identical above-the-fold presentation.

On Fri­day, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son announced that the State of Wash­ing­ton is suing Tim Eyman, William Agazarm, and Cit­i­zen Solu­tions for $2.1 mil­lion and also pur­su­ing injunc­tive relief bar­ring Eyman from con­tin­u­ing to manip­u­late mon­ey raised from gullible right wing donors. Eyman is accused of seri­ous vio­la­tions of Wash­ing­ton State’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure law dat­ing back to 2012, which we have writ­ten about exten­sive­ly here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate since that time.

The state’s largest media out­lets ran with the news as a top sto­ry. Here is a roundup of head­lines from Fri­day and Sat­ur­day, fol­low­ing Fer­gu­son’s press conference.

KOMO TV's website with Eyman litigation headline
KOMO’s web­site show­ing its head­line from yes­ter­day after­noon (Attor­ney Gen­er­al: Tim Eyman mis­used ini­tia­tive donations)
KING TV's website with Eyman litigation headline
KING’s web­site show­ing its head­line from yes­ter­day after­noon (Tim Eyman sued by state over alleged cam­paign finance violations)
KIRO TV's website with Eyman litigation headline
KIRO’s web­site show­ing its head­line from yes­ter­day after­noon (State sues anti-tax activist, alleges he per­son­al­ly prof­it­ed from unlaw­ful cam­paign transactions)
KCPQ's website showing its headline from yesterday afternoon
KCPQ’s web­site show­ing its head­line from yes­ter­day after­noon (Wash­ing­ton AG sues Tim Eyman over alleged mis­used ini­tia­tive donations)
Above-the-fold Seattle Times headline for April 1st, 2017
Yes­ter­day morn­ing’s Seat­tle Times above-the-fold head­line (State AG goes after Eyman for $2.1M)
Above-the-fold News Tribune headline for April 1st, 2017
Yes­ter­day morn­ing’s News Tri­bune above-the-fold head­line (State AG sues Eyman over ini­tia­tive cam­paign finances). The News Tri­bune’s sis­ter paper The Olympian had an iden­ti­cal above-the-fold presentation.
Above-the-fold Herald headline for April 1st, 2017
Yes­ter­day morn­ing’s Her­ald of Everett above-the-fold head­line (Suit filed against Eyman).

Both KOMO and The Seat­tle Times (who are AP mem­bers) chose to make use of a pho­to­graph tak­en by Elaine Thomp­son of The Asso­ci­at­ed Press in 2016, when the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of I‑1366 was being lit­i­gat­ed in King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court. (The court found the ini­tia­tive to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al on mul­ti­ple counts and struck it down in its entire­ty… a rul­ing that was lat­er upheld by the Supreme Court.)

The last time Eyman dom­i­nat­ed head­lines to this extent was arguably Feb­ru­ary 4th, 2002, fol­low­ing his admis­sion that he took hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars in cam­paign con­tri­bu­tions for his own per­son­al use and lied about it, false­ly claim­ing that he was not get­ting paid. NPI’s Per­ma­nent Defense was found­ed in the wake of that admis­sion, and com­menced oper­a­tions Feb­ru­ary 15th, 2002.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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