May 05, 2004

(Updated) Digging Around In Other People's Endorsements, Part I

'Willamette Week' Makes Their Picks

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

While you are all waiting with bated breath for our final endorsement in the local races -- that being for Commissioner No. 4, not due from us until May 9 at the latest -- we thought we'd make sure to pass along the endorsements of Willamette Week. Of course, we also have something to say about some of them as well.

Later this evening, or perhaps sometime tomorrow, we'll also weigh in on tomorrow's Portland Mercury endorsements as well.

But beginning with today's Willamette Week endorsements, we must point out some peculiarities, starting with their endorsement of Tom Potter for Mayor. In that endorsement, they had these things to say about Phil Busse (who, of course, received our own endorsement):

Portland Mercury managing editor Phil Busse, meanwhile, launched an energetic campaign that did more than all his opponents' combined to reach out to young voters. Our excitement for him is tempered by the easy disregard for the truth he's shown as a journalist (see "KO'ed on Salon.com," WW, Oct. 3, 2001) and the lack of detail he offers for many of his ideas.

First off, if you want the details on that Salon-related bit, you can read that earlier WW piece. It's clearly a rather stupid moment in Busse's journalistic career -- and not at all a favorable one -- but it's also only a single moment.

We're more concerned (for now) with the irony in Willemette Week asserting that Busse's agenda lacks detail in the middle of their endorsement of Potter, who has possibly received more criticism about a lack of specifics than any other of the "major" candidates in this race.

But as for that accusation of an "easy disregard for the truth," we feel compelled to point out another irony in the WW endorsements, this time from their endorsement of Nick Fish, in which they say of Sam Adams (who received our endorsement):

At the Candidates Gone Wild! debate earlier this month, questioner Steve Novick noted that Adams had been asked at an earlier event to give Katz a grade and gave her a C+. Novick went on to ask, "Couldn't you have found something better to do with your life than work for a C+ politician? And how much personal responsibility do you take for not raising her up to at least a B?" Adams ducked the question.

Well, who's suffering from an easy disregard for truth now, oh mighty Willamette Week staffers? You know full well that you are inaccurately reflecting what happened in that exchange, wherein Adams did not duck the question, but instead pointed out that the premise of the question, in fact, was wrong, and that Adams, in fact, had never said that he himself would give Katz a C+ grade.

Now, we didn't have our notebook with us that night, opting instead to kick back, drink, wander the aisles, and meet interesting people. But we're sure, as sponsors, that WW must have an accurate record of this exchange and perhaps they will go back and correct themselves in their next issue.

In the meantime, try not to easily disregard the truth in the same article in which you accuse someone else of easily disregarding the truth.

Meanwhile, WW went on to endorse Randy Leonard in the race for which we ourselves have not yet made an endorsement. So we will refrain from commenting on this at all, except to point out their pick.

Almost finally, we will pass along the fact that they endorsed all of the incumbent County Commissioners, as we did also.

But they manage to utterly bungle their endorsement of Measure 26-53, by urging voters to approve it. Falling for the misinformation that this measure is a "housekeeping" matter, they fail to do any examination of the matter for themselves and simply take the City Auditor at his word that there's nothing here worth worrying about. See our own analysis for a little more thoughtfulness.

Disclosure: PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE accepts political advertisements, and currently runs ads from the Busse, Francesconi, and Potter campaigns.

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