Sep 23, 2022·edited Sep 23, 2022Liked by Richard Cheverton
"One could write a book about the odd relationship between the Schnitzers and local power players."
Given the dearth of recent publications about local political history, we'd have to channel the late E. Kimbark McColl to ghost write that story and others for us. Be that as it may, your observation reminded me of what a skewed understanding many strident lefties on Reddit and Twitter have of how the city of Portland runs. They can be forgiven in part because this place is so bewildering that the few pundits who opine about it can't get it right either.
Where the youngsters (God, I hope they're Under-25s) get downright silly is when they accuse the Mayor of having sold out to shadowy real estate interests that are now calling the shots in this town.
Oh, if only that were true! In fact, the Jordan Schnitzers of this world would never tolerate the gross inefficiencies that stem from the bureaucracy's all-consuming equity crusade that doesn't even meet its stated objectives within the work force in City Hall, much less deliver any tangible benefits to the taxpayers apart from a reverse-apartheid arts festival or two.
No, it would take a corporate turnaround artist of unparalleled skills with bottomless pockets years to make Portland a city worth dominating from the smoke-filled banquet rooms of the Arlington Club.
If I had to speculate why Jordan Schnitzer and his co-captains of industry haven't mounted a takeover of the Rose City it's that they'd have to fire just about every elected official and key bureaucrat to make it worthwhile. Schnitzer is personally familiar with the futility of trying to pound sense into the heads of our best and brightest. In other cities a real estate magnate might be able to take a grievously misguided prosecutor to the woodshed (albeit one with crisp, white linen tablecloths and napkins) and expect the city to reap the results in fairly short order. In Portland, however, Mike Schmidt accepted Jordan Schnitzer's hospitality but ended the meal by telling him, more or less politely, to go pound sand.
Sep 23, 2022·edited Sep 23, 2022Liked by Richard Cheverton
The "frame" is an excellent way to describe outcome-based or advocacy perversions of what used to be known as "straight-news" journalism. It's well-illustrated in this piece, thanks. For a while now mainstream news reporting, print or otherwise, begins simply with, "How do we, good and decent and sophisticated progressives, characterize this information for the good of simpler folk?".
For my part, anyway, I saw The Oregonian jump that shark over the police shooting of Aaron Campbell in 2010. Whether it was visions of Pulitzers dancing in their heads, or the influence of pompous leftists from the NYT track such as Bill Keller and, coff coff, race scholar Nikole Hannah-Jones, The O as straight news parroted Rev. Jackson's laughable--and toxic--claim that PPB "executed" Campbell.
They were prescient in their own way, or else the BLM crapola became a self-fulfilling prophecy, despite a full seven years passing by before another black man was shot dead by PPB, Quanice Hayes. That's arch-racist big city carnage, there, youbetcha, even if Campbell's killing like Hayes' was not fully justified. The narrative, the frame, was, "Bad Racist Police; Blacks Targets and Victims".
It's multivalent now, with staffers like the execrable Betsy Hammond doing her part for leftist hackery. She ran an election-eve "straight" piece lauding Oregon's public education success (!) to help scandal-mired Gov. Kitzhaber limp across the line vs. Dennis Richardson. A month or so after his reelection, The O suddenly found religion on Kitz once Kate Brown was his safely assured replacement.
Engaged observers with more than amateur credentials to opine, including our august hosts here, could doubtless tell us when it all really began. Did Watergate, Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers go to the news media's collective head, in that its politicized ministrations were now just too valuable to be constrained by makeweight distinctions between informing the public versus editorializing?
Especially with COVID "coverage" in mind, outlined, let Subtstack help subvert these nasty nabobs.
Using the naval lingo of a WESTPAC cruise, the mama-sans running this whorehouse called Oregon?Well, them madams been running the show so long without penicillin, indeed without any attention to prophylactics, antibiotics, or the basics of rational hygiene program that we are in a new state of being. What's the most catastrophic STD? AIDS? We'll these local procuresses have engendered a pox that sped past AIDS years ago. Why go all the way to Wuhan?
It's like they said, "Screw 'em. We're not closing the bathouses because its fun and we're thriving." Progressives think that they are heroes. They don't see that there is a problem: Arson? Months of destructive rioting? Inflation? Open theft? Murder? Children who cannot add nor subtract but who can bugaloo with a tranny wearing an electric pink penis? Attacking citizens in the street for asking obvious and pertinent questions about the razing of an overall healthy and amendable legal, governmental, and social order? Where's the problem?
I'm glad we all are taking notes. Some bright spark will go looking for an explanation someday.
To quote from a favorite movie, the last couple years are just "spilt milk under the bridge."
Anyway, I include this 44 second link because I Iike the Jeremy Irons' delivery:
"One could write a book about the odd relationship between the Schnitzers and local power players."
Given the dearth of recent publications about local political history, we'd have to channel the late E. Kimbark McColl to ghost write that story and others for us. Be that as it may, your observation reminded me of what a skewed understanding many strident lefties on Reddit and Twitter have of how the city of Portland runs. They can be forgiven in part because this place is so bewildering that the few pundits who opine about it can't get it right either.
Where the youngsters (God, I hope they're Under-25s) get downright silly is when they accuse the Mayor of having sold out to shadowy real estate interests that are now calling the shots in this town.
Oh, if only that were true! In fact, the Jordan Schnitzers of this world would never tolerate the gross inefficiencies that stem from the bureaucracy's all-consuming equity crusade that doesn't even meet its stated objectives within the work force in City Hall, much less deliver any tangible benefits to the taxpayers apart from a reverse-apartheid arts festival or two.
No, it would take a corporate turnaround artist of unparalleled skills with bottomless pockets years to make Portland a city worth dominating from the smoke-filled banquet rooms of the Arlington Club.
If I had to speculate why Jordan Schnitzer and his co-captains of industry haven't mounted a takeover of the Rose City it's that they'd have to fire just about every elected official and key bureaucrat to make it worthwhile. Schnitzer is personally familiar with the futility of trying to pound sense into the heads of our best and brightest. In other cities a real estate magnate might be able to take a grievously misguided prosecutor to the woodshed (albeit one with crisp, white linen tablecloths and napkins) and expect the city to reap the results in fairly short order. In Portland, however, Mike Schmidt accepted Jordan Schnitzer's hospitality but ended the meal by telling him, more or less politely, to go pound sand.
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2021/07/portland-power-brokers-pressured-da-mike-schmidt-during-private-club-lunch.html
The "frame" is an excellent way to describe outcome-based or advocacy perversions of what used to be known as "straight-news" journalism. It's well-illustrated in this piece, thanks. For a while now mainstream news reporting, print or otherwise, begins simply with, "How do we, good and decent and sophisticated progressives, characterize this information for the good of simpler folk?".
For my part, anyway, I saw The Oregonian jump that shark over the police shooting of Aaron Campbell in 2010. Whether it was visions of Pulitzers dancing in their heads, or the influence of pompous leftists from the NYT track such as Bill Keller and, coff coff, race scholar Nikole Hannah-Jones, The O as straight news parroted Rev. Jackson's laughable--and toxic--claim that PPB "executed" Campbell.
They were prescient in their own way, or else the BLM crapola became a self-fulfilling prophecy, despite a full seven years passing by before another black man was shot dead by PPB, Quanice Hayes. That's arch-racist big city carnage, there, youbetcha, even if Campbell's killing like Hayes' was not fully justified. The narrative, the frame, was, "Bad Racist Police; Blacks Targets and Victims".
It's multivalent now, with staffers like the execrable Betsy Hammond doing her part for leftist hackery. She ran an election-eve "straight" piece lauding Oregon's public education success (!) to help scandal-mired Gov. Kitzhaber limp across the line vs. Dennis Richardson. A month or so after his reelection, The O suddenly found religion on Kitz once Kate Brown was his safely assured replacement.
Engaged observers with more than amateur credentials to opine, including our august hosts here, could doubtless tell us when it all really began. Did Watergate, Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers go to the news media's collective head, in that its politicized ministrations were now just too valuable to be constrained by makeweight distinctions between informing the public versus editorializing?
Especially with COVID "coverage" in mind, outlined, let Subtstack help subvert these nasty nabobs.
Using the naval lingo of a WESTPAC cruise, the mama-sans running this whorehouse called Oregon?Well, them madams been running the show so long without penicillin, indeed without any attention to prophylactics, antibiotics, or the basics of rational hygiene program that we are in a new state of being. What's the most catastrophic STD? AIDS? We'll these local procuresses have engendered a pox that sped past AIDS years ago. Why go all the way to Wuhan?
It's like they said, "Screw 'em. We're not closing the bathouses because its fun and we're thriving." Progressives think that they are heroes. They don't see that there is a problem: Arson? Months of destructive rioting? Inflation? Open theft? Murder? Children who cannot add nor subtract but who can bugaloo with a tranny wearing an electric pink penis? Attacking citizens in the street for asking obvious and pertinent questions about the razing of an overall healthy and amendable legal, governmental, and social order? Where's the problem?
I'm glad we all are taking notes. Some bright spark will go looking for an explanation someday.
To quote from a favorite movie, the last couple years are just "spilt milk under the bridge."
Anyway, I include this 44 second link because I Iike the Jeremy Irons' delivery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYlptbR0Dkw