Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen to speak on campus this Wednesday, Nov. 3

Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen will speak at Western Washington University from 10-11:20 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 3 in the Science Lecture Building Room 110.

The event is free and open to the public.

Blethen’s presentation, “Can We Save America’s 223-year Experiment in Democracy?” will address free, diverse and independent press in a democratic society, the dangers of a democracy without independent journalism and the current state of print media. The event is co-sponsored by WWU’s Huxley College of the Environment and the Department of Journalism.

Blethen is a strong advocate for independent journalism, family-owned businesses and is a long-time active participant in the national grass-roots movement in opposition to newspaper and media consolidation. The Seattle Times is the second largest newspaper on the West Coast, and one of the country’s last independent and locally owned newspapers. It has been owned by the Blethen family for 114 years.

The Times has won eight Pulitzer Prizes and has been a Pulitzer finalist 15 other times since 1990. The paper recently won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting on the shooting deaths of four Lakewood police officers in Nov. 2009 and the 40-hour manhunt for the suspect.