Is the Whidbey News-Times going to the dogs or was it just a slow news day?

Perhaps I have been missing something in the changing newspaper business, but everything I read says readership is falling. Could part of the cause be stories like the lead on Jan. 10? “Smiley” takes three quarters of the front page plus another full column inside. Meanwhile a significant story on the state ferry system meeting is buried on page 21, and no mention of Mary Margaret Haugen’s plan (Is her Oak Harbor office still open?) now that the election is over.

Smiley is a prime example of semi-autonomous, quasi-governmental organizations run amuck, people meaning to do good with minimal knowledge of what the outcome might be. Perhaps required reading for the WAIF organization members should be Edward Tenner’s book, “Why Things Bite Back,” on technology and the revenge of unintended consequences. Why wouldn’t you expect an animal to act crazy if you kept it locked in a cage for two years? Good luck Smiley, you’re in the hands of the liberal state of Washington.

Meanwhile lets get the News-Times back to what the public really needs to know about what’s happening on Whidbey.

David Flomerfelt

Oak Harbor