THE NEWSPAPER, THE CITY, HER MAYOR, AND HIS LOVERS

It's a classic witch hunt and Spokane loves it. A certain Jim West returns to Spokane like a bomb in a suitcase, from his job as a State Senate leader . And the bomb goes off. The man was on the local political scene earlier as a councilman in the "weak mayor" system. But now he's our mayor in the new "strong mayor" system. And it seems Mayor Jim is a sexual wildman only posing as an upright - and even uptight - citizen which is too, too much for our monopolized print media. Of course, the fact that Mayor Jim is disposed to same-sex sex makes him an easy mark. The Spokesman-Review has put him in their sights and is beating the bejesus out of him.

For me, West was my last choice among the five candidates in the last election. But it makes me shiver to see what a newspaper can do with allegations, innuendos, and misplaced headlines. Even if Jim West is guilty as sin and deserves to lose the upcoming recall election, that does not excuse the newspaper's efforts to whip up a mob to carry out the recall and trashing. The man has had no fair and impartial hearing. The whole affair reminds me of "The Oxbow Incident," or of many historical incidents such as the Sacco&Vanzetti case. True, it does not seem West is going to be executed, but not because the Review has kept him from it.