The Stranger, then friction

The Seattle PI's Joel Connelly takes note of the end of the honeymoon between Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and the 'alternative' newspaper that once loved her, under a take-no-prisoners headline;

Sawant: Is City Hall the stage for a socialist diva?

Never refuse an interview to socialist-writers who buy ink by the barrel, seems to be the message;

Sawant’s nimbus appears to be wearing thin, even in her amen corner — the alternative press that has sung her praises from one protest to another.

The first sign was a tart, tough farewell column by Anna Minard, who has spent the past year as The Stranger’s City Hall reporter.

Sawant is “ridiculously, mind blowingly smart and fearless,” wrote Minard.  But she went on to depict Sawant as a bit of a socialist diva.

“Her staff is probably the least diverse on the floor and the last time I tried to talk to her, they told me there was a two-week wait time,” Minard wrote.  “That’s insane.  Y’all get your act together, people are noticing and your reputation is to be accessible to the people.”

'The people' = we writers who made you. Another, Weekly writer Ellis Conklin;

...writes that Sawant “plays by her own strange and bewildering rules” in dealing with the media, while alienating council colleagues “with her show-boating and her narcissistic delight in upstaging them at every turn.”

Sawant is up for re-election next year.