Headline misrepresents council vote on impeachment

The Olympian published an article on July 13 about the Olympia City Council’s consideration of an impeachment investigation of President Trump.

Thank you for the article, but the headline was clearly wrong. It stated: “Olympia council rejects call to investigate Trump.”

That isn’t what happened, and it isn’t what the article said. Readers who skim headlines were misinformed, and those who read the full story must have been confused.

On July 11 the council responded to a request from community members by voting to write a letter to our Federal delegation encouraging an investigation of the President. No vote was taken on a proposed resolution for the same purpose, because some council members said it required more consideration.

The Olympian’s story called the vote on the letter “divided.” However, the only reason three council members gave for voting against it was that they preferred a resolution.

To make things more confusing, this was the third version of the story’s headline. In the online Olympian on July 12, a corrected version was fairly accurate. Why wasn’t it used in the printed newspaper the next day?

On July 18 the council fulfilled their vote by sending a strong letter to Representative Denny Heck and eleven other legislators, citing Constitutional mandates and stating: “When the honor and duty of the President is in question, an investigation is imperative.”

The members and supporters of Puget Sound Communities 4 Impeachment thank the Olympia City Council for upholding the United States Constitution, and for representing our voice.

This story was originally published September 7, 2017 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Headline misrepresents council vote on impeachment."