Let’s not judge Crosscut, the new local-affairs site run by Seattle Weekly refugees, on the basis of its day-one product. Presumably, like many Web ventures, this is a “soft launch,” a live test of the systems and features before a fuller site rolls out.

Given that caveat, the thing’s pretty colorless and shallow at its debut.

The “big expose” piece, about the still-churning legal case between the Times and P-I, is a mealy-mouthed treatise whose allegations (of Times management actions to bury the P-I) are wonky and obscure. It doesn’t help that the writing itself is wonky and obscure.

Then there’s Knute Berger’s piece charging the Seattle School District with not kowtowing enough to the demands of upscale white families….