Here are some of the things we’re going to discuss:

 • What’s a newspaper’s role in its community? Is its job just to report, comment and critique, or does it also have a responsibility to build a better community?

 • What’s the future of newspapers? Do they even have a future, or will the Internet replace newspapers as we know them?

 • What are the foundations of newspaper credibility? How is it built or lost?

 • What makes a newspaper great? What makes one irrelevant?

The conversation will be moderated by Joanne Lisosky, an associate professor of communications at Pacific Lutheran University. She also has professional experience in newspapers, radio and public television.

Joining her will be:

 • David Brewster, who founded both the alternative newspaper Seattle Weekly and Crosscut.com, an online newspaper for the Pacific Northwest. Brewster has made a career of challenging and changing Northwest journalism by zigging when the traditional media zag.

 • Michael Fancher, editor-at-large and senior vice president at The Seattle Times. Fancher is one of the best editors I know and a top strategic thinker in the newspaper business.

 • Jack Hart, author, writing coach and a former editor at The Oregonian. Hart’s expertise is in narrative writing and various approaches to telling the news memorably and well. Jack’s permanent home is on Raft Island.

 • Alex Tan, a professor and the faculty diversity fellow at Washington State University. Tan was the longtime director of the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at WSU and is an expert on journalism education and the demographic challenges newspapers face in coverage and staffing.

I’ll be there, of course, with other TNT editors and staffers to answer questions that might involve our newspaper.

You’re invited to come and listen to a stimulating conversation if that’s your wont, or come prepared to join in with a question or comment.

The forum will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Baker Rooms at the TNT, 1950 S. State St., in Tacoma. The event is part of the Pierce County Reads celebration and is co-sponsored by the Pierce County Library System.

THE MCCAIN STORY

Last week TNT editors chose not to run a New York Times story about Sen. John McCain and his relationships with lobbyists and business interests. The story contrasted McCain’s long crusade against the influence of lobbyists and the various times in his career that he’s gotten so close to lobbyists or business interests that he or his aides and advisors have been embarrassed or concerned about the connections.

We had two issues with the New York Times story. One problem was that the story raised the specter of a romantic relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist, but the story relied on anonymous sources for the romance angle and offered no proof that the relationship went beyond friendship.

The other concern was that the Times story was long and rambling and that raising the issue of the romance obscured the story’s central point: the potential contradiction between McCain’s campaign against lobbyists and his actual behavior as a senator.

We chose instead a Washington Post story that focused primarily on a named McCain adviser and his on-the-record account of telling the female lobbyist in a face-to-face meeting in 1999 to distance herself from the senator because her close association to him undermined McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign and the senator’s stance against special interests.

Both newspapers quoted anonymous sources saying McCain aides also personally warned the senator that his relationship with the lobbyist threatened to damage his presidential campaign. McCain has denied that his staffers confronted him about the female lobbyist.

We believe McCain’s record and his relationship with lobbyists is a legitimate issue for coverage. But we thought raising the issue of a romantic relationship with a lobbyist required a level of proof and transparency that the New York Times story failed to provide.

Dave Zeeck: 253-597-8434

david.zeeck@thenewstribune.com

blogs.thenewstribune.com/editors/