Lindquist: 'Smoking gun' packs little power

Re: “Long-held Lindquist text now revealed” (TNT, 1-6).

The “smoking gun” revelation in your quest to vilify Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist turns out to be a whisper in a windstorm, a fuse not attached to any gunpowder, a fizzle-failure.

Lindquist’s text request seems like a natural and necessary reaction to protect himself from TNT’s “blood-in-the-water” pursuit based on the questionable motivations of his adversaries.

The cost of Lindquist’s attempt to protect what little privacy he has might have more constructively led TNT to a real problem: the seemingly exorbitant level of fees charged by attorneys. Or TNT could have wondered why Appeals Court reasoning works to inhibit the intensity of legal representation provided by the public prosecutor while affording limitless, and sometimes dubious, intensity to criminal defendants.

In riding herd on public officials, TNT could improve its credibility by being more ethical itself. For instance, It could refrain from editorializing in news stories and headlines.

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 10:14 AM with the headline "Lindquist: 'Smoking gun' packs little power."