A couple of months ago, I left a QFC with a bottle of wine that I had failed to pay for.

245 replies on “A Note to Our Readers”

  1. What a lame statement. If it was accidental you would have stated so. You stole it. Have the guts to admit it. You so sanctimoniously judge people and make rash statements about them without doing any research or hearing their side of the issue. Give us a break. I hope this makes you into a more balanced writer and that one day you’ll actually graduate to becoming a reporter.

  2. There is not enough information here.

    And considering ECB’s attitude toward Sam Adams’ indiscretions, I sincerely hope someone investigates this further, exposes her crimes, and berates her with exactly the same amount of restraint and sensitivity that she showed Adams.

    For reals.

  3. Holy fuck! How did I miss this thread?

    I just want to point out that people made fun of ECB and Charles long before they trolls arrived. They write in styles that invite controversy. And ECB supported Clinton, which resulted in abuse far more vile than anything we’ve seen in the last few days. But the hecklers were regulars who stood by their statements by using consistent sigs.

  4. So, there was supposed to be a hearing on March 17, right? What happened at the hearing? Could we get some actual news and not this lame blame-avoiding statement?

    I will not lie: It feels good to see ECB come down a peg.

    After her shrill and holier-than-thou reaction to the Sam Adams situation, she deserves this and oh-so-much more. I hope she had as good a night with her $8.99 bottle of wine as Adams had with Beau Breedlove. (Oh, hmmm, and which one of them broke the law? Hmmmm?)

  5. Erica has no moral compass. She just charges off bullishly in random directions, mistaking her clumsy momentum for something meaningful. What kind of person brags about being a “former” vegan and then tries to tell vegetarians what to think about animal suffering? A shoplifter, does, I suppose. Thank goodness for the Page Down key.

  9. Gosh, I’m glad some other folks finally picked up on the Sam Adams meme. Thanks! She totally went off on him for lying about something that, as far as we know, was legal sex. ECB, I love ya. I like your writing. I generally agree with most of your views. But your Sam Adams rants were kinda crazy. And in light of this indiscretion by you, totally casts it all in a new light.

    Good luck getting through this … and please treat other humans with minor failings with a bit less indignation in the future.

    BTW, I also was a Hillary supporter, and I was a bit bummed when it was clear she was toast. But I gladly ripped down my Hillary posters and the Hillary bumper sticker on my car … and soon replaced them with “LGBT for Obama” stickers and posters. Hooray for his recent UN decision! And please keep it coming!

  10. For those of us who you have trashed in this paper without even a phone call to check for truth it is like Xmas, Hanukah and Kwanza all rolled up into a beautiful way to begin Spring.

  13. Erica C. Barnett is a pathetic hypocrite. She had a hissyfit at Nicole Brodeur over the semantics of what drives someone to rape, but then when her own colleague wrote an idiotic post defending an alleged sex offender, she cowered in the background, with only a tiny comment to contradict him.

    Compare this:
    http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

    to this:
    http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

    Savage’s round up the troops and circle the wagons approach is even more pathetic. Together he and ECB have turned the Stranger and Slog into a toilet bowl.

  16. Very telling that no Stranger staff has responded except to tell us what “bad things” they did when they were kids. Not adult journalists, but kids.

    ECB, it could be forgiven and finished if you’d come completely clean. Otherwise, sorry, the Stranger is damaged goods and always will be because of this. The integrity hit is irreparable otherwise, and as a journalist I can tell you ALL you have to go on is your integrity. Remember the goat fucker episode? Her integrity is trashed.

  17. @219, integrity pretty much got shown the door the day they made Savage editor.

    There have been a number of things where Stranger writers showed a complete lack of integrity or professionalism, and the only response from Savage and his lapdogs is to 1) offer up a snarky non-pology (Brendan Kiley is particularly adept at this), 2) complete silence or 3) circle the wagons, as it’s been said.

    There are still some awesome writers at the Stranger and Slog – David Schmader, Lindy West, Jen Graves, Megan Seling, which is why I come back here, and the old-time crew was by and large awesome (Annie, Amy Kate, etc.).

    Savage craves attention too much to be an “editor”. Dominic is okay, but parrots his editor too much. ECB is just a joke. She was a battlefield promotion after Feit left. She writes hack pieces full of misinformation, and her shrill tone is too much to bear. If she spent half the time looking in the mirror as she does ripping apart other local journalists, she might get somewhere, but she’s obviously not getting the direction or mentoring that she needs, which is no surprise, considering the clown that’s in charge. I mean, look at the glee over trashing local repoter Vanessa Ho and getting her name linked to “Stupid Fucking Credulous Hack” in Google. Savage just about wet himself when he accomplished that. Says a lot, doesn’t it?

  18. “Failed to pay for”? Do you mean you stole it or that you wandered out of the store oblivious? Let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? Then we can discuss the octuplets.

  19. When I was in college, we were required to do a little volunteer work for one of our classes. I chose the Toy Rescue Mission. On my last day of mandatory philanthropy, I spotted an old, beat up ukulele. It was blue with funky red flowers. When I left that day, I did so with an absurd ukulele-shaped lump under my shirt.

    I stole from needy children.

    I’ve never regretted it. I love that ukulele more than any of those kids could have.

  20. ” Stranger is damaged goods “

    Yes, because before shoplifting charge it was a hot bed of quality, pulitzer quality journalism.

    Please, the Stranger is a jerk off matt for Cap Hill hipsters. They make most of their money advertising prostitutes.

  21. I’d rather read a piece about what it’s like to get caught being a thief, than a vague one-liner that’s meant not to admit guilt, but that everyone sees through.

    (Sorry for ending in a preposition, but if ECB can, then so can I.)

    Also, Erica: Apologize to Sam Adams. NOW.

  25. I find it astounding that anybody spends this much time “watchdogging” slog.

    I also find it ironic that the people shrieking most loudly about this non-news by implication a) consider Ms. Barnett important, b) consider the Stranger important, c) consider themselves crusaders for some kind of truth, much like the apparent chorus of Mudede-haters, who obviously take a lot of time out of their own lives to follow his every post and decry his failings as a human being.

    If you buy the notion that our reporters must be paragons of virtue in order to be able to do their jobs, then it follows that you people who are trying to “expose” Ms. Barnett and are crying for her blood should also disclose your identities and confess to any past crimes in order for the rest of us to assess your credibility. You also have an impossibly idealistic view of the journalistic profession.

    Seriously, seeing that you spend so much time on this insignificant, small-minded crusade is depressing. Have some human dignity, for pete’s sake.

  26. @228, no one here is under any delusion that Stranger writers are “paragons of virtue”. But if wine thief Erica Barnett wants to root around in others’ dirty laundry and parade it around the town square, while at the same time leading a life of petty crime that she and her editor subsequently try to cover up, and when that fails make light of, then people are going to call them on it. If the Stranger is going to demand transparency and virtuous, objective reporting from others, then readers can demand the same of the Stranger. If the Stranger doesn’t want any of this feedback, then easy, either 1) stop blogging and stick to the print edition or 2) turn off the comments. If they do indeed want feedback, well then, they’re going to get it.

  27. @229 Well said.

    Erica brought this on herself by being A) a humorless, moralizing, self-important scold who delights in trumpeting the failings of others, and B) a failure herself.

  28. See, you make “feedback” sound constructive here, like something that they could read, process, and use to influence the way they do things in the future.

    But the way you’ve been presenting it is anything but constructive. Screaming your point over and over again isn’t feedback, it’s time-wasting irritation. It makes you seem not like a rational person, but like an alarmingly obsessed partisan with a personal axe to grind.

    “If the Stranger is going to demand transparency and virtuous, objective reporting from others, then readers can demand the same of the Stranger.”

    I haven’t seen any of your many, many, many tiresome comments demand that at all.

    “If the Stranger doesn’t want any of this feedback, then easy, either 1) stop blogging and stick to the print edition or 2) turn off the comments.”

    Or 3) eliminate bylines, so that people who can’t distinguish between journalistic integrity and civic integrity don’t have any room to grandstand over the behavior of their journalists, whose job description doesn’t have anything to do with past crimes.

    What’s more, if you think every journalist who has committed a crime should be drummed out of the profession, then you’d see an enormous reduction in the number of journalists.

  29. Dear Dan,

    I’m in a relationship with a newspaper that’s been going on for about 14 years. It’s an on-again, off-again thing, but lately things have taken a turn for the worse. You see, my newspaper used to be all smart, snarky and sexy. It was a great alternative to the local mainstream media, covered important topics, and had some top-notch writers. But for the past couple of years, I don’t know, I’m just not that into it anymore. You see, instead of going the extra mile to get good information, my newspaper now just throws together hack pieces full of misinformation. The tone has gotten so shrill I have to plug my ears sometimes. And worst of all, there’s a new level of personal meanness and character smearing against other local notables going on. The post are more flippant than ever, and clearly geared to start flamewars in the never-ending search for comments and site hits. Integrity seems to have been shown the door. And to top it all off, my newspaper has totally given up on personal hygiene. I feel like I’ve invested a fair amount in this relationship, but I find that my newspaper has become a skulking, negative rag, and I’m not sure there’s anything worth salvaging. What do you think, is there anything worth saving, or is it time to accept facts and move on?

    Sign me-

  33. Regarding @232: these douchenozzles will say *anything.* Sometimes they pretend to be concerned for LGBT fairness, sometimes for America’s financial security, sometimes for journalistic standards. But it’s never in response to anything that’s been said earlier it the thread (unless it’s a word for word parody where they change a noun or two), they never sign with a consistent handle (or they only post once per thread,) so they never dialog.

    DON’T PRETEND YOU’RE HERE TO DISCUSS ANYTHING, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES.

  36. Is someone getting Erica the help she needs to overcome being a kelptomaniac and an alcoholic? (Only then can she work on the extreme bitchiness.)

  37. Typical of a marxist/communist posing as liberal…Comrade Obama would welcome such disregard for the laws… as we have seen thus far into his epic failure as a POTUS…

    Save America shoot a liberal

  38. I want more information about what “failed to pay for” means.

    Where were you holding the wine?

    Just in your hand? Or did you put it in a bag? Or under your coat? Or someplace more interesting?

    Details, please, so we can figure out what really happened.

  39. So we’re never going to get a straight answer to this until we petition for public records, huh? And you all will go on as if it didn’t happen.

    Journalistic integrity 0, hiding the truth 1. Your rep is permanently trashed.

  41. Yeah, I got busted for shoplifting too… When I was 8. I learned my lesson with a good scare from the security guards at the five and dime.

    It’s no surprise that someone with lefty arrogance like Erica, grew up to be an adult without ever learning the lesson.

  42. Erica–
    Your “rap sheet” is growing.
    How about all those parking tickets you failed to pay to the City of Seattle?
    KLEPTO ERICA…or KRIMINAL ERICA

    Neither one is good.

  44. I find some signs of Erica’s essential integrity in her one-line admission — just think of all the lies she managed to restrain herself from writing:

    1) I’m sorry
    2) I regret taking something that wasn’t mine
    3) It was all a mistake — I didn’t mean to do it
    4) I’ve never done anything like this before
    5) … or at least since I was a kid …
    6) I won’t do it again
    7) I don’t think the store owes me anything
    8) I don’t think an evil corporation like QFC deserves theft
    9) I’ll use this experience to become a better person
    10) I’ll embrace the community service as an opportunity give back

    there must be many more…

  45. Hey you guys – cut Erica some slack. It’s not like she grew up in a wealthy Houston suburb, in a large house, in a white middle-class family, and then went on to college (paid for by mums and dadders?). She’s had to claw her way up to where she is. At the very least, the world owes her a bottle of wine.

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