It's a little incendiary.

Or "inthendiary" to be more accurate.

It's sneaky on the part of the Oregonian. But then, it isn't actually inaccurate to make the connection between the Mayor and lying. By his own admission.

I think I would have titled it, "A Shrubbery of Lies."

Rejected headlines:
"Bucket of Deceit Sank Adams Case"
"Unbelievable Untruths UnMade Adams Case"
"Rogue Battleship Sank Adams Case"
"Licket of Thighs Sank Adams Case"
"Thicket of Thickets Sank Adams Thickets"
"Adams Case Sank Thicket of Lies"
"Pick it, Lick It, Stick It, Flick It, Thicket. Of Lies"

Fuck, I'm bored at work today.

If we compare Portland's "newspaper's" performance to it's Mayor's, I'd say things are about even.

The Oregonian is a POS and the sooner you stop reading it, the sooner it will disappear and be replaced by a real paper, or something else better.

Yeah, it's about time we had something other than the Oregonian. Alt-weeklies are fine, but it'd be nice to have a "major" print news outlet that wasn't constantly at odds with Portland's liberal majority. The O is just painting itself into a corner of irrelevancy.

It's not like urban Portland went "liberal" overnight-- so I'm left to assume that the Oregonian is pandering to the suburban / rural conservatives. After all, who still buys newspapers? Anyhow, it sounds like a decades-long death rattle to me. The young, educated liberals aren't going to start reading it any time soon, and they know it.

You guys are all being too harsh. The way I see it, The O should be commended for actually putting something resembling a news story on their front fold. This is a big step up from the splash photos of dogs who paint.

Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Just how many lies constitute a thicket? Maybe that Tootsie-Pop owl can help.

I'm not sure what the alternative to the Oregonian is. Where else are you going to go to get local news in volume? The alt weeklies cover bands and snarky local issues once per week. The TV news is half about meth busts and half American Idol wrap ups.

When I see people trying to dance on the Oregonian's grave, I wonder how much these people really know about anything beyond inner Portland, if they do, where the heck they hear about it?

It's another example of people moving here from Brooklyn or wherever and being SHOCKED that the local paper isn't like the NY Times. This is Oregon people.

Chunty, you answered your own question: "Who still buys newspapers anyway? Not young liberals." Then why would the paper be aimed at you?

You're assuming that the Oregonian is written for "urban Portland", which it isn't. It's truly a statewide paper, thus the name.

Who is lying? Everyone who thinks this whole mess really matters is lying. We have met the thicket, and the thicket is us. Well, not me ... but you know what I mean.

A burning bush of lies??????????

The O makes me lol. Such a rag. Canceled them years ago (and their FoodDay spam paper).

A Sticky Wicket of Lies would have been adorable.

From JO blog:

June 23, 2009

To fellow Oregonians,

I am certain you are as pleased as I am that the Attorney General’s office has concluded their investigation regarding Sam Adams and my son, Beau Breedlove. Unfortunately, there are facts or circumstances that I feel need to be told that were not included in any reports.

Foremost, regarding the statement given by my son after the late night interrogation by Mr. Adam’s legal team. At that time, it was discussed the negative implications that could occur if the kissing incidents were revealed. Mr. Adams spoke with my son specifically regarding the kissing incident at City Hall. Mr. Adam’s legal advisors refused to include that information in the statement saying it “wasn’t necessary to the investigation”. My son was naive and trusting. As I see it now, these actions were all part of Mr. Adam’s strategy to discredit my son and deceive the public, in the very beginning.

The Attorney General’s report also stated my son benefited in notoriety and financial gain. I wouldn’t wish this “notoriety” on my worst enemy. The barrage of the media was frightening. The attacks threatened his job to the point he was put on administrative leave, disrupted his neighbors and created daily turmoil for the entire family. As far as my son’s “financial gain”, you’ve got to be joking! Beau does not own any real estate, he rents a small apartment. During this media charade, my son struggled to pay his every day bills. The mere pittance he received from the magazine was necessary at that time, just to make ends meet.

At his first press conference regarding this scandal, Mr Adam’s stated one of his first calls would be to me. That never happened. It’s been over five months and believe me, the conversation wouldn’t be pretty now. At his most recent press conference, Mr Adams stated that he has “learned his lesson” from his poor judgment…….I beg to differ.

My son has always believed that he was not a victim in 2005. But I believe he’s a victim now. Exploited, deceived and betrayed by a friend and a “mentor” (?) for his own political gain. It saddens me that my son’s credibility was the one that was the focal point in the Attorney General’s report. Perhaps the outcome would’ve been different if Mr. Adam’s acknowledged his actions truthfully to the investigators as he did earlier with my son. Apparently, he was aware of the Oregon law allowing people, not under oath, the right to lie and deceive police and investigators. Maybe this law needs to be changed.

Now that we can all get back to our own lives, I hope people remember the shameful insight into the lack of honor, integrity and credibility exercised by Mr. Sam Adams.

Thank you for listening,

Gwen Roseler

Beau Breedlove’s mom

Snap.

Blabby, I've lived in a few places other than Portland-- smaller cities, even-- that have vastly superior papers (and that superiority includes better writing, editing and a far more balanced and objective view of local issues). The Oregonian is written by old cranks, for old cranks. If they don't like Portland, they should fucking leave.

You dismiss the alt-weeklies for covering bands and "snarky local issues", but remember that you spend all day hanging around an alt-weekly's blog.

But I suspect that you, like myself, are hanging around 'cause The Mercury does a good job covering this stuff. The Oregonian, however, seems content to toss out a few trollish headlines that whip the suburban homophobes into a frenzy of anti-urban, anti-culture bleat every time someone rides a bike without a helmet. It's sensational, exploitative pap, and someone up at the top level must have decided that it's what sells-- and that's sad. It's sad because it's not substantive shit that the suburbanites benefit from either. It's just lazy, hackish shit from a skeleton crew of burnout reporters. The rest of the state lacks a real, investigative daily paper as much as we urban liberal Portlanders do.

Yes-- I'm aware that Oregon is full of rednecks. But last time I checked it was also full of pot-smoking, peace-loving hipppies.

The O is in the midst of a reinvention and I think is set to surprise people.

Steve Duin and Anna Griffin are pretty good reads.

And in this case, I'm not sure what all the feather-ruffling is about. The press is exercising its duty to ensure the public understands the story behind the story, and if it has to be a little rough around the edges to do so, it is probably because its audience is so apathetic it wouldn't even bother to pick up a newspaper otherwise.

The apathetic audience is also why we have such an abysmal local political situation.

Oh, and a fricassee of lies would be my favorite.

"If they don't like Portland, they should fucking leave."

One more time slowly: It isn't just a Portland paper.

Is the O not kissing your ass enough Chunty? Are you not getting the hard hitting stories you desire about fixies, ironic facial hair, and where to buy a new newsboy cap?

A newspaper about "urban Portland" would frankly be insufferable, and none of the scenester pieces of crud would buy it anyway.

This is the exact same conversation we keep having over Sam Adams, in which you guys extrapolate from your personal feelings to what all of Portland believes.

Hey, inner-Portland hipster d-bags: your group of friends, all of whom moved here in the last four years, does not represent "Portland." It sure as hell doesn't represent Oregon.

Why do you guys hold yourselves up as being "Portland"? You aren't Portland. You all just got here. You're mostly just a collection of failed bands and other shiftless dilatantes.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.s…

It appears that the title has been changed to
"Thicket of contradictions sank criminal investigation of Adams"

...and to Blabby, I fully understand that the Oregonian is the state's biggest newspaper, and to some extent this fact should shape the way the news is collected and presented. But Adams is the mayor of the city of Portland, not of the Metro region, and citizens who pay tax dollars to the municipality and vote in the municipal election and have the name "Portland" in their mail address have more of a right to complain about or support the mayor than someone in beaverton, gresham, vancouver or salem.