It has to be just a matter of time, now. Head over to Just Out to read more.

Headed by publisher Marty Davis, Just Out newsmagazine is asking that Portland mayor Sam Adams resign from office.

By his own admission, by committing the act of lying to the citizens of Portland, Adams has failed to show the principled character that this publication feels is a basic requirement for an elected official.

Just Out acknowledges that over his two decades as a public servant Adams has risen to become one of Oregon’s most revered openly gay leaders. This publication has long admired Adams’ vision, his
intelligence and his tenacity. Ultimately we have concluded that these qualities cannot overcome the weakness revealed in Adam’s recent admission.

Adams’ apology of yesterday, including specific reference to the gay community, while sincere, is not enough. The bond of trust and confidence has been broken. Adams has previously stated his hope that gay and lesbian youth might one day look to him as a role model and example. His own actions have now rendered this implausible.

Adams must resign his seat as Portland’s mayor.

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

18 replies on “Just Out Calls On Adams To Resign”

  3. Just a matter of time? That is weak Matt- So just because a small group of folks-those who sit on editorial boards- are calling for him to resign he should do it? Where are the rational counter arguments about why resigning would be harmful and not productive? Try some balenced reporting. I do not think this reflects the general thoughts of the public. This is an over hyped media decision at this point. Did Just Out do a survey of their readers? How do we know this reflects the pulse of the public at all? Just like the media hype that helped fuel a rush to war, now we are ready to burn him at the stake. Let the voters decide! There is a perfectly good recall process that the general public can use if they feel strongly about this.

  5. Why has your editor, Steven Humphrey, not expressed any opinion on this subject yet? Dan Savage promises to give us his take on things in a later blog post, which I’m very curious to read. But Steven Humphrey is your boss, he works with you on a daily basis, and, like Dan Savage, also worked w/ Amy Ruiz for a number of years. And when is the Mercury going to officially announce their position on this matter? You keep posting every other publications take on this – when will the Mercury step up and announce their collective view?

    Because honestly, this is starting to look like/sound like a witch hunt, Matt. You also worked with Amy for several years and I can’t help but wonder how much of your motivation is being driven by your personal views, of Amy as a person, how you worked together and how she was as your boss, and how you feel about her moving on to a government job that pays quite a bit more than you make at the Mercury. The line between your duties as a journalist in reporting this and your personal views on the parties involved are getting blurry. Some clarity, please.

  7. Jennifer, I think Wm Steven Humphrey did comment here: http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/Blogto…

    Or maybe you were looking for more than that.

    Also, if you’re suggesting that Matt may be going after Amy as some kind of personal vendetta, you should note that The Oregonian featured an entire story on the 2nd page of Metro about Amy’s involvement. (I think WW might have done something, too, but I’m not sure.) Also, as Matt posted earlier, Amy’s involvement made Poynter’s national media blog, which is big news.

    I believe (as much as I can, without actually knowing her) that Amy is innocent, but if the Mercury were to remain silent, or to treat this as a peripheral issue, it would be damning for them. And I can’t imagine it’s easy for anyone on the Mercury staff to have to pursue this story.

  9. I’m with Team Blogtown Commenters on this post, everyone needs to chill out. Maybe we should just put it to an official vote; I would bet most people really don’t care, because it’s not like he, say, took $700 billion dollars of our money and gave it away to bunch of mismanaging millionaires. Stop making a mountain out of this, let’s just make a few good jokes about it and move on.

  10. I think you have to have a real bias yourself to think the Merc (or Matt) has a vendetta. If anything they could be doing even more, and, I suspect, are holding their tongues until they can say something very thorough.

    You also have to let the Merc be the Merc, when a blog post has a headline like “It’s just a matter of time” it might help to remember irony and humor are still allowed around here, even when it’s about hard news.

    Eventually, of course, they will have to take a position on Adams’ status and make a more extensive statement about Ruiz (even if it’s just “while she exercised bad judgment, we stand by the substance of her reporting from those months”).

    Question: could Adams resign, then run in the special election? Risky, but moves him onto higher ground compared with a recall, and resolves things faster. But first the AG has to find that he’s telling the truth about waiting until Breedlove was 18.

  13. “Not exactly scientific”

    That’s a polite way of putting it. The correct term is “Completely Unscientific”.

    I give zero credence to web polls on any topic, regardless of outcome.

    In this case, if the KATU web “poll” was showing 73% in favor of Sam staying in office, I wouldn’t believe it either.

  16. Wow. So the editorial staff of the shittiest paper in town thinks that Sam should resign? Gee, after they defended the loathesome Diane Linn for no reason other than “the case for loyalty”?

    Well, I’ve changed my mind. Sam, you were always an underwhelming politician, as far as I noticed, with attractive bad ideas that were just as expensive as they were unworkable. However, if Just Out’s against you, I’m for you.

    Y’know, because they’re morons.

  17. I cannot pretend for one minute to know, let alone feel indignant, about the private affairs of consenting lovers. This is a play for media storm, and I do believe there are deeper truths at play, whatever the case may be.

    It’s quite a stretch to say that any of this casts little more than a faint shadow upon a career of political substance. Shall Mayor Adams be perversely vindicated in an apparent anticipation of torches and pitchforks raised against his supposedly corrupting influence as a gay man? The hype is mere stigma.

    Holding politicians accountable is not a matter of dragging representatives off pedestals; nay, it is of calling them to the duty of consistently doing our bidding to the best of their abilities. The election is over; the work of governance is what matters, especially in these tricky times.

    Scapegoating is the transparent leverage of political distraction. There’s no place in government for the moral determinism of churches or weak journalism.

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