Score one for those fed up with the national media fawning over Stumptown. Dan Rather’s report on Portland as a hub for child prostitution repeatedly contrasts Portland’s status as a “model city” with its…er…other reputation. Hey, you remember Rachael Marcus’s story “Confessions of A Teenage Prostitute?” Well…Dan Rather just picked it up for the Huffington Post:

To pick just one example among many, Portland, Oregon is without doubt one of the nation’s treasures. It has been voted one of the best places to live and work. But according to police, the city and its outlying communities has become a hub for the sexual exploitation of children. In a recent nationwide sting by Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, Portland ranked second in the country for the number of rescued child prostitutes. And according to Doug Justus, the workhorse sergeant in charge of Portland’s tiny Vice Detail, many of the children caught up in this are middle class kids from the area.

Specifically, however, I’d like to thank Portlander, Caucasian cheerleader and believer in the “new media Judenreich,” Julian Lee for his comment on Dan Rather’s story, which clearly shows the real cause of this problem.

Julian Lee 18 minutes ago (4:11 PM).1 Fans.

This can be no surprise since the trend in Portland is towards extreme liberalization. The “hip metro” magazine here, The Portland Mercury, is pornographic and encourages every kind of sexual license. (Publisher: Tim Keck of Seattle. Editor: Steven Humphrey.) The Portland Mercury even hosts “The Portland Amateur Film Festival,” inviting all youth to prostitute themselves by making porn movies and offering the videos to the Mercury’s event. It’s called “Hump.” The writer Dan Savage is a big player in both the Keck empire and for his “porn festival.” (Search YT for “Portland Mercury Porn Protest”) The Mercury flirts with cannibalism on it’s present cover. The issue has the headline “Testicle…It’s What’s For Dinner” and features to female figures (with cat heads but human clothes) assaulting a male and kicking his testicles. Inside, the article’s about eating Yak testicles, which is sort of sick. But the art cover is sicker, suggesting human testicles. Their issues updating us on “teen sex” are repulsively pornographic. This highly sexed newspaper, where “anything goes,” is targeted at the younger generation, who make up a huge demographic here. The Portland Mercury’s purpose and commercial strategy appears to be: Break cultural taboos, cross every line. In this atmosphere of moral decline fomented by Keck and Humphrey (their “amateur porn festival is cutely named after Humphrey) child prostitution is inevitable along with other things repugnant to Western civilization. You can’t break every moral rule and expect rules about children to somehow remain unbroken.

Blog poll!

WHICH OF THESE STATEMENTS DO YOU MOST STRONGLY AGREE WITH?

Matt Davis was news editor of the Mercury from 2009 to May 2010.

34 replies on “Dan Rather On Portland: Center Of Child Sex Trafficking, Also…It’s The Mercury’s Fault”

  3. “Steve Humphrey and Tim Keck have fermented moral decline to the point that child prostitution is inevitable.”

    While I agree with the first part of this statement–it is obvious that Humphrey and Keck live to ferment (and foment) moral decline–I disagree that child prostitution is inevitable. It is only through continued effort on the part of Humphrey and Keck, not to mention Dan Savage, that we will soon live in a glorious kingdom of testicle-eating, Western-sensibility-offending, sexual depravity, including, but not limited to, child prostitution.

    It’s wonderful to see Julian Lee giving credit where credit is due, but you mustn’t let it go to your heads. There is still work to be done (and human testicles for cat-headed ladies to consume).

  5. “This highly sexed newspaper, where ‘anything goes”

    “The Portland Mercury’s purpose and commercial strategy appears to be: Break cultural taboos, cross every line.”

    This post makes our job seem way cooler than it really is.

  8. from the comments-

    And nice try at sneaking in homosexuality as a “cause.” Steven Humphrey and Dan Savage are both openly gay. And Dan Savage is in a gay marriage, with an adopted son. About which he writes as the experience of responsibility.

    Does Steve’s wife know?

  9. Actually, NO, the HUMP! amateur porn fest is NOT named for me, and YES, Keck and I are doing our best to foment moral decline. VOTE CHOICE #1! VOTE CHOICE #1!

  12. Slippery slope argument! 20 point penalty.

    You guys, breakin’ all the rules, crossin’ every line, gleamin’ the cube… You must all wear sunglasses, too.

  13. That is amazing. That comment should be the front page of the paper next week. And every issue should have as a byline: “Portland Mercury: The highly sexed newspaper where anything goes!”

  15. Is it jut me or has Julian Lee, Matt Davis, and everyone else missed the point? This problem has nothing to do with the Mercury. and it’s a problem that can only be fixed with two things: 1)food carts, and 2)bicycles.

  18. If this internship is not the mainline to the child pornography ring, then I am decidedly misinformed and have no idea what I’m doing here.

    Wow. Nice bait and switch, Merc.

  19. Ooooh, YOU guys are the reason I’ve started to frequent prostitutes. This will make it much easier to come clean to my wife.

  20. The last time PAC looked at me like I was a piece of meat, I assumed it was a metaphorical thing. Now… now I’m not sure what to feel.

    Still kinda flattered though.

  21. Only Sue Sylvester can tell us whether Wm. Steven Humphrey is gay.

    And adding Julian Lee to any story is going to automatically make it more awesome and hilarious.

  24. Julian Lee sounds like one of your most loyal readers. He must have read every page for who knows how long. I bet he can’t wait for the next issue…..

  28. Julian Lee’s website is probably the most bizarre white power site I’ve visited (this afternoon).

    He’s like a hippie nazi.

  31. I thought Republicans were for children having a decent work ethic? The only reason this is a story is because in red states they don’t pay children to have sex with them they just rape them.

  33. I grew up in a pot smoking liberal beach town in Orange County California. When I was young there was actually a massive riot on the beach because some cops told these ladies to put their clothes back on. Well it was liberal, until the Christian Coalition declared war on the “drugs and queers.”

    Have you seen Harvey Milk? Orange county was like ground zero for the culture war.
    It’s weird to think that people don’t remember the “culture war.” Well long story short, the neo-conservative movement mobilized a human wave of immigration to southern California. “To clean up the hippies and the fags.” It was their god damn rallying cry.
    My home, a lovely beach town turned into Baywatch, and was paved over with condos.

    A lot of people from there, moved here.

    Now south Cali’s a hotbed of Minutemen, Racist Skin Heads, and Tea baggers. Most people don’t remember a time when it wasn’t conservative as fuck. Well that was the 80’s. If you can’t remember it, then head down to Beulaland for some 80’s night.
    My current roommates just moved up in exile from all that conservative bullshit.

    To get to the point here.. We live in a bubble. A bubble I like. I’ve been out side of the Pacific Northwest and a lot of it sucks.

    Child prostitution is terrible. I think that’s obvious. This Julian Lee guy is a turd. Again, obvious. The thing is we shouldn’t write off the sick reality that neo-liberal turds like Julian Lee have ruined good places before. Mocking concern over child pornography because the Turd Julian Lee decided to couch it a Trojan Horse of anti liberalism is a bad idea.

    Just saying.. “Keep Portland weird?”

    ~Michael b.

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