I generally try to avoid commenting about the foibles of my fellow press jackals. Glass houses, burning bridges, that sort of thing. Plus I'm a native Washingtonian; because of my breeding I'm usually pretty laid back.

Yesterday, though, all my buttons were pushed and folks got on the fighting side of me. Nothing gets me more upset than when people in my chosen profession make a total mockery of the institution of journalism by their inept actions. It was a combination of reading Postman on Politics, which I do about four times a month - boring writer - compounded by jostling with the press corps after Dino Rossi's campaign kickoff in Issaquah.

First off I'll roll up the newspaper and swat the Time's senior political reporter David Postman over the nose for his comments yesterday chastising Dino Rossi and his staff. They wouldn't give him the text of his kickoff speech on Wednesday, the day before Rossi was due to give it. Now Postman has developed an inferiority complex thinking that the Rossi camp is out to get him. (The entire text of the speech is posted below for conservative and liberal readers alike to borrow, read, steal).

Of note. Every journalist who showed up at the Village Theater was personally handed a text of Rossi's speech. They were met by the candidate's fetching blonde-haired, blue-eyed flack, Jill Strait. She informed everyone of the candidate's availability to speak afterwards and where. Standard stuff.

So why wasn't Postman given a copy of the speech? It's because apparently he was too busy to be bothered about covering the start of the most important - and probably tightest - statewide race in 2008 and he just didn't want to drive out to Issaquah.

Here's a bit of advice David. Get your lazy, dead ass out from behind your desk and have shoe leather hit pavement. If the Issaquah Press has the chops to send someone over to cover this, if the Everett Herald can send a guy through morning I-405 traffic you've got no excuse. Not to talk about the embarrassment. Don't have a ride? Give me a call. We could carpool and croon along to our favorite Glen Campbell songs on the radio.

It was rather shocking that Postman would flip-out about not getting preferential treatment with the release. So the Rossi camp is supposed to give the Times the scoop on the speech and flip-the-bird to the Post-Intelligencer, News Tribune, Spokesman Review, Olympian, Everett Herald and every television and radio outlet in the state? Just so Postman can look good and be the first one to post about it on his blog? No flack in the world is going to do that. It's amateur hour to expect otherwise.

Of course the reason he was mad is because Postman is your standard press release political reporter - the type I've been fighting my entire news career to overcome. You look at the majority of his coverage and its re-hashed press releases, fundraising numbers, or opinion poll results. To be fair he also comments on what bloggers write; which is about as sad as seeing Gary Coleman in a Check 'n Go commercial.

I'm not just picking on Postman here; most of political reporting in this state is done the same way. Read a political story in your paper? It's in there because a flack faxed or e-mailed the notice the day before and like every good hack reporter they get led around by the nose following the lead.

Evidence you say? Case exhibit one is all the coverage about Dino Rossi's announcement. This news was coming down the line louder than a locomotive on crushed glass. Everyone knew it was happening. If you put your ears to the track you'd hear that the actual date had even been postponed a few times. So why no word? Apparently no one sent a fax.

There's also the sad fact that the majority of political reporters locally don't know jack about the comings and goings and behind the scenes maneuvering in the Republican Party. And from what I've seen, they aren't much wiser about the Democrats either.

That's the first half of the story but it gets worse. Before the press scrum after Rossi's speech a few of the "senior political writers" were talking about how they were surprised Dino was even going to run. Postman wrote on Oct. 22 that he thought there was only a fifty-fifty chance that Dino was going to run. Ummm... Yeah...

You might love him. Or you might not. But talk to Rossi face to face like a man and you could see that he's been hungry for a rematch for three years. Everyone in this state, and their brother Darryl and their other brother Darryl knew he was going to run. About the only way a rematch wouldn't happen is if a freak trampling accident occurred during a photo shoot in the Woodland Park Zoo's Elephant House. And even then, the state GOP would put Dino Rossi's name on the ballot.

This was not a surprise to anyone. Except for the state's premier political writers.

Postman stated that he'll be interested to hear specifics from Rossi about issues. Well, since he was finally e-mailed the text of kick-off speech Postman must have seen about half of it dealt with fairly specific items. I'll be interested to see if the Time's senior political writer will have the time to write about the candidate's take on education, transportation, public safety, or DSHS or whether he'll be too busy posting more about Darcy Burner's fundraising totals.

Oh Postman. Sack-it-up and post an apology. That mealy-mouthed blurb hidden in the comments section doesn't cut it. When you write your story; be sure to only rely on the sources given to you in the press release and make sure to quote Chris Vance in the seventh and fifteenth paragraphs. Can't write a story about the state GOP without quoting him. Wouldn't want to find another source. Help your writing. Get a better feel four the pulse of the party. Nah...

The hell of it is Rossi's speech was probably one of the most substantive given by a candidate during a kickoff. He addressed more than a dozen specific policy issues addressing key subjects. There was enough fodder to fill any news hole for three weeks. Out of a 15-page speech, three are on the subject of education alone.

You can think they are good or you can call them ill. Rossi's education proposals if implemented would be some of the most radical changes to the Washington education system since public schools were included as a governmental responsibility in the state constitution.

So what do you think happens during the press gathering afterwards? Any questions about education? No. DSHS? Nuh-ah. Prisons? Are you kidding me?

Instead we talked about some stupid poll. Rossi mentioned that he was polling 47-45 behind Gregoire during his speech. For an hour long talk, bringing up that 10-second sound bite was handy in showing that the race is pretty close, just like everyone knows and that both candidates have super high name recognition. Folks understand where the candidates stand.

So we had a TV reporter grilling Rossi, for 90 seconds of a 17-minute Q&A period about how his numbers were different than a Gregoire job approval poll which had her ratings slightly higher. You mean two separate polls, by two separate organizations, on two separate topics, and only questioning around 400 folks who cared to answer, came up with two completely separate end results? Slap your grandma! Get out of here.

You had questions about fundraising. The average voter doesn't care if Rossi raises $4 million, $6 million or $12 million in the race. Since reporting quarterly fundraising results is so simple that a dyslexic orangutan or a netroots blogger can do it, reporters feel they have to get hip to the game or get left in Squaresville if they don't talk about it too. For the past few years campaign coverage has focused more and more attention on fundraising totals instead of writing about issues and candidates' past performance. It is just lazy journalism and a waste of an editorial hole.

Another thing. There was question. After question. After question by one print - or wire - reporter who'll go unnamed about Dino Rossi's involvement with the Forward Washington Foundation and whether the group would release a list of its donors. *Finger twirl*. Gotta find out if Dino collected a salary. And who paid for it. Cause Dino is so strapped for cash after buying a freaking baseball team.

Don't want to talk about crime and prison population. Or throw a curveball about drug enforcement or the state's illegal alien population behind bars. Or anything about transportation. You know WSDOT has been getting some projects in on time and on budget. Don't want to hold Dino's feet to the fire for his criticism of the agency? Of course not. When someone's pretending to be a hard-hitting reporter they are too busy trying to nail another pelt on the wall so they can win that big award. Before they die of old age in ten years at any rate.

And to end the debate, here's a good guess. The donors to Forward Washington are probably not an Indian tribe or a teachers union and the individuals have probably donated to the election campaigns of politicians whom Democrats don't like. I'll lay odds. Now can we stop reading conspiracy theories in liberal blogs and get on to real issues like unregistered sex offenders?

Part of the problem is that print and radio reporters, who have a real job to do, have to compete with TV news personalities who aren't even real journalists - the producers are. It's bad enough that us dumb ink-slingers come from the lower third of college graduates. But then throw us in alongside TV reporters; some of the most vapid, clueless individuals when out in the field who don't even care about any of the subtext, nuance, or underlying themes about an event just so long as they have 30-seconds of someone, doing something, anything, that looks good on camera.

Here's the plan...

Get a shot of the candidate making a five second declarative sentence behind the podium. Switch to the candidate, arms upraised, with his family and supporters. Do a pan of the audience applauding. Follow this with your standard "press conference" shot of the candidate responding to the same bloody, damn question that the other TV reporters had asked three times before. (Prop 1) Or any random comment by the politician in question.

"Why yes I do like pork and beans Jim. But I only eat Van De Kamps. And then with brown sugar after picking out the floating fatty chunk."

Edit that comment down to about eight words. And fill the rest of the 30-second segment with the TV news personality standing in front of a news van, live, on location in Issaquah. This is a slack-jawed twit for KIRO 7 News.

Now one would expect this sort of incompetence from an ass clown like Stranger staff writer Josh Feit who was also in attendance.

Whoever Feit's dealer is needs to get him a purer blend of whatever it is he's been inhaling. The guy was rambling, incoherent and fidgeting like Tweek on South Park. First he starts with a question about Congress' S-CHIP vote on childhood insurance - he must have been confused and thought he was at a Reichert or Doc Hastings kickoff. Then he goes all Woodward and Bernstein about transportation taxes and how Rossi voted for the Nickel funding package in 2003. A... fact... that... Rossi... has... made... widely... public... by... campaigning... on... it... ever... since... 2004... Right?

Enough venting. Now that I'm done making friends and influencing people. I think I'll go back to listening to Rhinestone Cowboy...