By Erica C. Barnett
Earlier this week, KIRO Radio’s “Gee and Ursula” show had a guest, Angela Rye, who spent most of a ten-minute segment accusing me of fabricating what she called an “unsourced” story on allegations made by city staff about Derrick Wheeler-Smith, the head of the city’s Office for Civil Rights. Rye belittled my work and this site repeatedly, making multiple false claims about my story.
One factual claim—that Mayor Katie Wilson did not put Wheeler-Smith and his deputy, Fahima Mohamed, on administrative leave—merits specific correction. As we reported, Wheeler-Smith has been on family and medical leave to care for his mother; the administrative leave is separate and unrelated.
Additionally, KIRO did not fact check or correct the false claim that Wilson had “been paid, by this gossip blog site, $30,000.” (Rye referred to me as a “gossip blogger” and PubliCola as a “gossip blog” no fewer than nine times—a standard, time-worn term used to dismiss and belittle female journalists and our work.)
As readers know, Wilson was an activist and writer for many years before she decided to run for mayor, and I solicited (and paid for) five pieces from her between 2023 and 2024. The total for those pieces, according to records from my payroll software, Gusto, was $3,900. It appears Rye looked at Wilson’s financial affairs statement and decided to interpret “less than $30,000” (the smallest category) as “$30,000.” The Stranger and the Urbanist also paid Wilson less than $30,000 for period columns in 2024, according to the report.
Here’s an edited version of the two statements I issued after KIRO aired its piece, which it then posted on social media and Youtube with various headlines belittling this website and my work. As of this morning, KIRO as well as the two radio hosts have not responded to any of the posts I have put up on social media, which tagged the hosts as well as the radio station; nor have they responded to comments I have made on the online versions of this segment.
KIRO Radio has still not reached out to me after running a ten-minute segment accusing me of fabricating my heavily reported story about allegations against a city department director by his staff, which their guest called “unsourced.”
They also referred to me as a “gossip blogger” nine times—a misogynistic term used to dismiss female writers since time immemorial. I have been working alongside KIRO Radio’s reporters for 25 years, and their decision to use their massive megaphone to run a 10-minute radio piece trashing me as a person and a journalist is outrageous and unacceptable.
The “Gee and Ursula” show never contacted me about my story before they handed the mic to someone whose apparent goal was to damage my professional reputation as an independent journalist. They have also ignored my comments about this on social media, on which I tagged them repeatedly and offered to come on their show to explain my reporting process for this story, including the reason whistleblowers who fear retaliation routinely speak to reporters on condition of anonymity.
PubliCola, in publication since 2009, is a fraction of the size of an outlet like KIRO Radio, so my ability to defend myself is dwarfed by KIRO’s ability to defame me as a “gossip blogger” and fabulist. It is appalling that this radio show spent ten minutes of airtime trashing me and my work without bothering to contact me or fact-check any of the false claims made about me by their guest, including the bizarre lie that I paid now-Mayor Katie Wilson $30,000.
Instead, they have shown they are proud of this segment by posting it on YouTube, KIRO’s own site, and elsewhere with splashy headlines like “Angela Rye Calls PubliCola Story a ‘Gossip Blog’ Amid Seattle Civil Rights Drama.” Wilson, who was a writer and activist for many years before she was mayor, wrote for me five times over two years, with the last piece in 2024, long before she ran for mayor. I paid her $3,900 total for those five pieces ($500 for one and between $1,000 and $1,200 for the others.)
I remain eager and willing to come on the “Gee and Ursula” show or any other KIRO show to correct the record about my work and explain my reporting process to their listeners. I realize this is less exciting than a personal and professional attack, but I believe any media outlet should be interested in speaking to the people they are talking about—especially when there is an opportunity to correct false claims they, perhaps unwittingly, led their listeners to believe were accurate.
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lol, is Angela Rye masquerading as Monica P. Jones in these comments? 🤣😂🤣. (Or someone else as reflexively defensive of the odious KIRO team? Your article doesn’t claim Gee made the comments, yet this poster seems real interested in providing extra cover for him. Is it… Gee himself?!?).
You should sue the living daylights out of these fatuous, brown-nosing troglodyte hacks. You could wipe the floor with them.
I’m sorry Erica but you have spent a lot of words on your own self-pity and none to acknowledge anything about who made the comment.
Angela Rye (Gee did not make these comments) is not some disgruntled person off the street – she is a highly accomplished Black woman and Seattle native, an attorney, former executive director and legal counsel for the Congressional Black Caucus in DC. Most of the 10 minute conversation was NOT about you, it was about how Mayor Wilson has been so quick to dismiss city agency heads who are primarily people of color.
Please be somewhat more self-reflective and pick your battles more wisely. Attacking a Black woman questioning the firings of people of color by a new white mayor – and making it all about yourself – is not a good look for you.
I certainly did not say she was a “disgruntled person off the street.” Nevertheless, she slandered me on the radio and made many, many false claims about not just my coverage but the people, mostly people of color, who came forward to share their stories with me. The central claim she repeated here, which I covered in one of the stories I linked, is that Katie Wilson’s Black deputy mayor conspired with me in some bizarre pact to take Wheeler-Smith down. The narrative you are describing is simply false; this is about 101 journalistic integrity as well as getting facts straight.
Gossip journalist? The real problem in Seattle is you don’t have a lot of media focused on what most people in Seattle want. Most are “corporate journalists” doing the bidding of the corporate advertisers of the news companies that hire them. Erica is a “people’s journalist” that we wish we had more of in Seattle, so who cares what Angela thinks?
Newsflash, an incoming mayor can hire her own team, and has absolutely no obligation to retain ANY department head from a previous mayor. Yes, she should hire more black department heads who are qualified to carry out ‘her’ vision for the city. But that does NOT mean Harrell’s folks get a say in who she hires. Elections have consequences, and if Rye wants to appoint city department heads she should run for mayor and WIN. She should understand, however, that most black folks have moved out of the city because of the ridiculously high cost of housing so her black voter base is now down to 6.5%. If she can’t win a whole lot of white, Asian, and Latino votes, her candidacy is DOA.
This site is more journalisc than the stranger and Seattle Times currently are
If you can’t take it don’t dish it out!
Angela Rye can’t get through a podcast without dropping that she knows Kamala Harris. She’s mad that the pro-business establishment Seattle mayor lost to a young socialist. Rye reps for corporate liberal dems so no wonder she doesn’t like Wilson or the Publicola piece. Keep up the important journalism, Publicola.
And her “strategic” advice to Kamala was disastrous. Can’t keep pointing at your race and gender and win a NATIONAL contest, as this turns off the very voters you need in the relevant swing states. Obama understood this almost intuitively, and very rarely referred to his race.
Ursula Royteen was their news director for many years and should know better. She should be embarassed.
RE: KIRO. First, keep in mind the corporate owner of KIRO, Cox Media, which might lower your expectations that they would respond to defend their own journalism and content. They seem to be a corporation that is always moving on to the “Next Story”, in a Ready, Fire, and Don’t worry too much about AIM.
Secondly, a criticism: your use of the term misogynistic, as it relates to journalism and gosssip. your word choice here reduces the credibility of your own position. “Gossip” is a subjective term at best, and is certainly not the owned domain of any gender or identification. Be self-critical of your own work prior to publication, perhaps more aligned with the teachings of Edward R. Murrow as a guiding light. Report facts as they stand: don’t compromise your own journalism by stooping to the level of the detractors. I support your work, and want you to be successful here, for we clearly need voices to counter the FOX, Sinclair, Cox Media megaphones.
Grotesque and stupid.
I learn a lot about what’s going on in my city and county by following and reading your work.
I learn very little if anything by paying attention to what KIRO outlets have to say. They are a platform for right wing grievance and conspiracy theories and trash talkers like the ones mentioned above. I’ve got $10 for you today, and nothing for them.
Given the people involved in that KIRO attack on Erica and Publicola, and the histories of those “journalists”, this is all about the racial makeup of them and their defense of a Black city department head. Especially when said Black department head was anti-LTBTQ. Gee, in particular, has expresses strong anti-LGBTQ views, and is particularly transphobic.
Angela “says” that Wheeler was exposing a rift between black and white progressives and that is why he was asked to leave. If that is true, then he would be a divisive force if left as a department head. Need department heads who are on board with what Katie is doing in uniting progressives across all demographics to tackle the affordability crisis, the homeless crises, the fentanyl crisis, the budget/tax problem, ICE invasions and more. Can’t waste ANY time on black-white squabbles within the progressive community.
Angela’s threat to get signatures for a recall election reveals that she is basically a disgruntled Harrell supporter who can’t get over the fact that Bruce lost to a white girl. She is willing to waste the city’s precious resources on a recall election even though Katie has only been in office less than a year. This takes selfishness to the extreme, and reminds us of Donald Trump whose narcissism and self-absorption makes him think he can threaten his way to get what he wants or burn the house down if he doesn’t. We don’t need another election to understand that Seattle doesn’t want the racially divisive garbage that Angela Rye is selling. “We rollin’ with the white girl” so it is time to turn the page, and move on!
I love your reporting and rely on it to understand local government and politics
Good luck…The FOX ‘We report, you decide” and “Fair and balanced” approach is now local TV ‘news’ and radio talk is considered factual.