I know what you’re thinking. “Another sepia-toned photo of an old white guy in a suit, no thanks!” But wait — th is image is actually timely. Let me explain. This shows C.B. Blethen, son of Colonel Alden J. Blethen, who published the Seattle Times start ing in 1921. Wh ile his father never shied away from a controversy, C.B. was known for sanitizing the Times and giving it a conservative journalistic voice. After years of being known mostly as the right-leaning sister newspaper to the more left Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Times endorsed Barack Obama last month. It’s also worth noting that current publisher Frank Blethen (yes, another Blethen) called the paper’s 2000 endorsement of George W. Bush “the biggest presidential endorsement mistake we have made.”

C.B. Blethen, Publisher of Seattle Times, 11/2/25. Image courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.