Veteran broadcast journalist discusses disability issues and his personal battle with hearing loss

Mike James

Veteran broadcast journalist discusses disability issues while openly sharing his personal battle with hearing loss

Mike James is known and recognized throughout the Puget Sound area as a long time lead anchor in local television, as a journalist respected by his peers and the public, as a former state-wide political candidate, and as a leader in service to his community.

Mike began his local journalism career in 1966, at KING Radio, where he wrote and anchored early morning newscasts and covered local events and politics for several years. In 1968, when KING-TV expanded its nightly news program, Mike moved to television journalism.

Mike James covered the local government beat for KING-TV, reporting from Seattle City Hall and from the King County Courthouse. He also covered important trials, including the infamous "Seattle 7" trial in Tacoma. From the 1970's into the 1990's, Mike was a familiar face and voice in the Puget Sound area as one of the principal anchors at KINGTV. After a run for U.S. Senate in 1994, Mike returned to television, covering local events and appearing as a weekend anchor on KIRO-TV from January 1995 to July 1999.

During his career Mike received numerous awards for his work, including several local Emmys, citations from the journalism fraternity Sigma Delta Chi, and a national award for economic reporting from the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College. These included honors for documentary work on abortion rights, economic relations with China, Pacific Rim Trade, and on human rights issues in Korea and China. In 1997, Mike's peers voted him into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle.

In 1999-2000, Mike James appeared on national television as a correspondent for the PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer. During that same year, he visited sub-Saharan Africa and the American southwest to explore new approaches to wildlife conservation. The assignment included writing and preparing a national PBS documentary report on wildlife issues.

Mike often speaks on disability issues, out of personal as well as professional interest. An inner ear disorder caused his hearing to deteriorate in mid-career. He knows firsthand the workplace and community challenges to people of disability.

Community service is important to Mike. He is an immediate past-president of the Hearing, Speech, and Deafness Center Board of Directors, and remains on that board as current chair of the Capital Campaign Committee. He also serves as 60th Anniversary Committee Chair on the board of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. Mike recently received an award for his community service from the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.