A Smear Campaign in the Seattle Streets: Newspaper Turf Wars and Local Politics
A reader writes in to defend Senator Allen against a rival political 'combine' flooding Seattle with Tacoma newspapers to influence local opinion.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Bennett-White combine is beginning to show its teeth. Mr. Bennett is not satisfied that the kicker combination can deliver the goods necessary to defeat Senator Allen, so he proposes to do a little missionary work through the medium of the Tacoma Ledger. Beginning last Monday, a huge bundle of Ledgers arrives on the 8:40 train every morning and are distributed among the newsboys of this city free of charge, with extra inducements offered to encourage the little fellows to sell the Tacoma Ledger on the Seattle streets. This floating riff-raff is to be induced to defeat Allen with the well-known method of bribing, while the non-purchasable of our citizens are to be hypnotized with exaggerated falsehoods. I think the Post-Intelligencer is deserving of credit for its fearless action in tracking the tricksters to their lair.
“A body politic must be treated with the same heroic remedies as is a body physical. If we find bad blood and an accumulation of poisonous matter in any part of the human body, we must cut it out.”
Political influence campaigns using 'astroturf' media and free distribution of biased news to shift local sentiment remain a common feature of city politics. This 1892 complaint highlights the long history of skepticism toward outside interests attempting to steer municipal elections in Seattle.
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