Dancing with the Stranger Mathew Manweller Style

Where is Paul Harvey when you need him? 

Never fear, years after Paul's death, the Stranger is here with part of the rest of the story and released many more of the sordid details of Matt Manweller's hypocrisy to the general public yesterday. 

This follows the lifting of the injunction on the release of Central Washington University's report in attempting to come into compliance with Title IX regulations on sexual harassment allegations made by students against Manweller in 2006 and 2007.  Manweller is attempting to spin this report as absolving him of these actions.  It does not.  The simple problem is that CWU's response at the time was ineffective and the "complaints" were "resolved" on an informal basis and CWU made only the most cursory attempt to correct the problem, i.e. Manweller.  The sad fact of the matter is that CWU bungled the process under the requirements of Title IX back in 2006 and 2007 and knows it.

CWU is not currently disciplining Manweller due only to the lapse of time. 

During the past week, Mr. Manweller, his campaign, and his sycophants have also been distorting an editorial run by the Daily Record's editorial board to claim that the Daily Record endorsed him.  They did not and when confronted with their distortion refused to admit that they were not telling the truth about the endorsement.  Hence, yesterday, Joanna Markell, Managing Editor of the Daily Record, restated that the Daily Record did not make endorsements in two of the local races, the race for the State House (i.e. Mathew Manweller versus Kaj Selmann) and the judicial race in yet another editorial.

I appreciate these two local papers making the attempt to at least provide the information held by Central Washington University.  Democracy is helped by having a free press that strives to at least appear non-partisan.  However, the people in Grant County are not as fortunate as we are here in Kittitas and Yakima Counties, as the dominant paper there, the Columbia Basin Herald,
has essentially refused to even cover the CWU report other than a few lines sandwiched inside a thinly veiled campaign piece.  This is where we can all be grateful for the growth of the internet and the great platform it gives individuals to share information that does not find an outlet due to partisan journalists.

For more information on the actual court hearing lifting the injunction and allowing for the release of the Central Washington University investigative report on the sexual harassment allegations made against Mathew Manweller please go to Steve Verhey's blog post on the hearing.


Updated 11/3/2012 to link to Joanna Markell's Out and About Column.