The New York Times has a story today about the scandal that has engulfed Portland’s mayor, Sam Adams. It’s a good recap, but it regurgitates the “Portland divided” story line at a time when large numbers of Portlanders are literally rallying to their mayor’s side.
The story is illustrated with a photo of a rally outside Portland’s city hall—but not a photo of the hundreds and hundreds of people who gathered outside city hall last night in support of Sam Adams, but a photo of the small handful who gathered earlier in the day to call on Sam Adams to resign. The New York Times doesn’t identify these protesters for what they actually are—opportunistic Jesus freaks* who were none too thrilled about having an openly gay mayor before this scandal broke—but if you look closely the Jesus freaks out themselves. Check out the guy in the center, grinning madly. He’s holding something up.
It’s a Chick cartoon tract.
Some are attempting to draw a false equivalency between the pro- and anti-Adams demos here in Portland, even thought the pro-Adams demo last night was at least fifty times larger than the earlier anti-Adams demo.
* For the record: I’m not saying that everyone that’s upset at Sam Adams’ for lying, or calling on him to resign, is a Jesus Freak. But it’s clear that the only people upset enough with Sam Adams to actually show up at a protest calling for his ouster are the Jesus freaks. And those people were upset with Sam Adams before we learned that he had lied about sleeping with an 18 year-old.
I would like to repeat that I don’t support the mayor and I’m not a religious person.
There are some very good non-religious reasons for not supporting the mayor right now.
I think you supporters who claim that the unhappy citizens are Jesus freaks or from the suburbs are fooling yourselves.
I would also like to point out that we elected this openly gay man a couple of months ago, without and his sexuality wasn’t even an issue.
So the notion that there is suddenly a homophobic crusade seems a bit silly to me.
Yes, many whackjobs show up to protest at City Hall. Some are Jesus Freaks, and some are Storm Large. What are you going to do?
And some of the people upset enough don’t want to be associated with the Jesus Freaks so they post on their blogs instead. Or talk with other people over dinner. Seriously “a rally” isn’t indicative of anything, other than a bunch of local celebrities who likely want some exposure for themselves as much as they really care. And yes, I mean you too, Dan.
Actually, a rally is indicative of something. It’s indicative of how passionate hundreds of people felt about keeping sam in office. The number of people who felt equally passionate about kicking him out? Six.
ooh! Did anyone grab a tract? They’re funny *and* collectible.
On Thursday afternoon, myself and three other students from Portland State University spoke with a (this?) reporter from the New York Times. He did an extensive interview with us about why we made some signs and just walked down from PSU to show our support. After the interview was when he dropped the, “By the way, I am so and so from the New York Times,” which left our heads spinning. As has been pointed out, its funny how a “divided Portland” is what is framing the story, and that the support (even as early as Thursday) really hasn’t been covered nearly as extensively as the “division” has been. I guess it is not sensational enough.
Also, I have been rather disappointed that the coverage some of these extremely homophobic, religious zealots have been given, especially how the media — especially the television news — has been using their dissenting voices on the news, as if they were simply “average joes” who really care about Portland politics. After spending time down at City Hall on Thursday, I was inflamed when I watched some of the news last night and saw KGW using one of these people saying “It’s just wrong” to play into their “divided Portland” frame. What was upsetting enough to call the newsroom and lambast them for their poor journalism and misrepresenting of reality was how they portrayed him as “normal” when on Thursday afternoon this very same man was yelling in my face about being a fag enabler because I support Sam and how Sam and I would burn in hell together. The news reporters have been camped out at City Hall and know who these select group of homophobic extremists are and really, they shouldn’t use them for their news broadcasts unless they tell the viewing public about their agenda.
Dan Sewage, you’re one of the worst hypocrites ever to disgrace a dead tree- if someone showed your utter intolerance for people of faith to gays, you’d be pissing yourself.
Dan, thanks for at least admitting that not all of those calling for him to resign are Jesus-freaks… it’s some sort of comfort for a liberal-atheist-Portland-native like myself not to be lumped in with the crazy Bible tumpers.
However.
I’m upset enough with Mayor Adams to want to attend one of the “resign” rallies, if I didn’t a) have a day job that I quite like in the midst of a scary economy, and b) didn’t want to deal with said Jesus-freaks. I’ve tried arguing with them in the past, and all it’s made me want to do is pop some Excedrine, go home, and worship Satan or kill babies or whatever it is the Fundies think I do in my spare time (does knitting count as “Satan worship?”).
To me, it honestly, truly is about the lie. He had a chance to either say, “Yeah, I screwed that hot 18-year-old piece of ass, what of it?” or “Mind your own damn business.” Maybe I’m naive enough to want politicians who won’t lie to me and others, but we can’t let current or future politicians in the same position learn that they can lie to the public and it will be fine for them.
Also, I understand that Mr. Breedlove wasn’t Mayor Adams’s direct intern, but it was a mentoring position, wasn’t it? Even though the sex was consentual, even though Mr. Breedlove was of legal age, it still kinda sorta seems like a conflict of interest and conflict of position in that scenario… mentor sleeps with mentoree. And then asks him to lie about it. Is that really what you should be teaching a young man with political aspirations?
More straw man arguments, more obfuscation – this argument isn’t quite right here.
Just because most reasonable and rational Portlanders won’t stand next to these kooks in the middle of the day during the work week doesn’t mean more people support Mr. Adams. The fact that these assholes (jesus freaks/attention whores) are standing in front of city hall getting local, and national press is ENTIRELY Sam Adams fault, and another good reason why he should step down. Those crazy fringe fundie types don’t deserve ANY attention on the political stage,yet Mr. Adams handed it to them on a silver platter.
I enjoy your sex advice column, Mr. Savage, and I think in that arena you play a vital and important role in discussing a myriad of issues that are important to the public as a whole. That said, I wholeheartedly disagree with your stance on this situation, especially given the advice you have doled out concerning older men and teenagers. It is obvious that you have personal connections to the people involved in this mess, and want to help out your friends. It’s just too bad you are sacrificing your own credibility in the process.
I’m not going to say I’m going to stop reading your column, or stop reading the publications that run your column – but I will say I won’t be paying any attention to your political views ever again. This matter is for the people of Portland to decide, and you’d better serve the public by sticking to idea that young men should be very wary of, and in most cases, stay away from, much older men who want to fuck them.
It’s a shame that a publication as large as the NY Times is presenting a skewed view of Portland to outsiders.
@alanwhatshisname – Yeah. Dan totally needs the exposure of a 500 person rally. It’s not like he was on CNN several times in the last few months, jumping to the forefront in the defense of gay rights and equality. Or the Colbert Report. Not like he has a nationally syndicated column or anything.
@will — it’s a bit like having 238 useless comments on Blogtown that no one reads but you. And then there’s 239. I think you can relate to Dan’s attention-whoring, only you don’t realize you do.
That guy in the white hat owes me $10!