The Press: Code v. Law

Writer Emmett Watson of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (circ. 196.955) had trouble built into his weekly column. While it read like a gossip column, it was actually an advertisement paid for by ten Seattle restaurants whose names Watson dropped among the items. Possibly because the column rested on that highly dubious journalistic base, Watson at times stretched a grin into a guffaw. "Three noted ex-cons are busy about town putting together a burglar-alarm system," he wrote one day in 1956. "The guy who installs it is an expert—served in three state prisons for a total of twelve years—for burglary."

Seattle's newly formed A...

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