On Feb. 1, someone named "Ronald" posted a comment about a local businessman named Terry Beard on both the Portland Mercury and Willamette Week websites. Ronald's message "was Greek to me," the Mercury's Amy Ruiz writes, "but Terry Beard sure didn't appreciate it." He took both papers to court to get them to reveal the anonymous commenter's IP address. The papers' attorneys fought the motion, arguing that Oregon's Media Shield Law protects the information. The plaintiff's lawyer countered by contending that the shield law only applies to news gathering, not the passive reception of information. On Monday, Judge James E. Redman sided with the papers, and agreed that the IP address was protected under the state shield law. However, he noted that "if the comment had been totally unrelated to the blog post," then the shield law might not have applied.
The company that owns The Stranger and Portland Mercury announces the release today of Foundation, "a highly customizable, fully integrated content-management system for alt-weeklies." The new system, which was developed in partnership with DesertNet, includes dynamic calendars, city guides, user profiles, and extensive editorial tools. "With its customizable layouts and components, Foundation will reduce alt-weeklies' reliance on expensive web development," the Index Newspaper press release says.
Portland's city auditor Gary Blackmer (pictured), angry about his treatment in a story in the Portland Mercury, approached reporter Matt Davis in City Hall, called him "despicable," and threw in a "fuck you" for good measure, according to the Mercury. Blackmer's beef comes down to the question of whether or not he provided comment for Davis' story on racial profiling by the city's cops. The story noted that Blackmer "declined to comment," yet he and a colleague both seem to think they provided enough comment by quoting from an earlier report. "To say [they] declined comment is fair, and I would challenge them to state publicly, here, why they did not," Davis writes. The Willamette Week's Ian Gillingham thinks that Blackmer's explosion was inspired by the newly released film The Bucket List, "in which two geezers start doing all the things they want to do before they die."
Despite vows by Willamette Week that they'd "beat the living shit" out of their cross-town rivals' softball team, the Merc prevailed for the second year in a row on Sunday, by a score of 11-8. "It was another great Sunday in the world of sports," writes the Mercury's Wm. Steven Humphrey. "The WW has really improved since last year, and made a strong showing with numerous hits and good fielding, but ultimately it was the surgical style of the Mercury that won the day." AAN members: we know that many of you have softball squads hitting the diamond this summer. Feel free to report successes, failures and box scores to jwhiten (at) aan.org.
The Mercury caused quite a stir when they organized a freelance janitorial crew Friday evening to put an end to a Rose Parade tradition: the "reserved" seat. In the City of Roses, people tape off sidewalk spots up to a week in advance of the annual parade, and, according to KOIN-TV, some were even selling their spaces on Craigslist. "If you go to the DMV or the bank, you don't get to tape your spot off in advance and then come back the next day," the Mercury's Matt Davis explains. "It's ridiculous." But as a local TV news reporter says, some folks "really don't care for the idea of messing with tradition." One inexplicably frightened bystander tells KATU-TV that the Merc's peaceful group of tape-and-chalk exterminators had her a little rattled: "It is quite interesting; kind of scary. I was worried for a second what might happen."
When law professor-turned-blogger Jack Bogdanski posted an item about a shooting outside a downtown hip-hop club, the Mercury's Matt Davis accused him of inciting racism, leading to a flame war that spread to other local sites, reports the Oregonian. Bogdanski responded by blocking the alt-weekly's IP address, preventing Mercury employees from posting comments on his site. "It's like a jihad, when these guys (at the Mercury) get going, they just pour it on," Bogdanski tells the Oregonian. To which Davis responds: "Regardless of (Bogdanski's) readership or our readership, I don't think we should be cutting conversation down. It's important that Portland have a conversation about race."
The athletic Portland Mercury crew won first place in the city's "Bar/Restaurant/Media/and Friends" softball league. A recap of this weekend's championship game and photos of the excited staff are available on Blogtown PDX, the Mercury's group blog.
Eight of the prospective members are previous applicants, and two are owned by alt-weekly veterans who had been members during a previous association with different papers. AAN members will also be asked this year to evaluate Boston's Weekly Dig and Des Moines' Cityview, the first two post-sale newspapers whose membership will be reviewed under a process established in 2004 when the association's bylaws were amended. The fate of all of these papers will be determined at the organization's next Annual Meeting, which will be held in Little Rock on Saturday, June 17, the last day of the 29th annual AAN convention.
Mrs. Portland Mercury contestant Bethany Miller filled her stomach with "colorful, smelly and chunky" food items, chased with ipecac, then visited The Mercury's office in time to hurl in the kitchenette. Her beef: the mocking tone the alt-weekly took about its own contest. "People were really mean, and they didn't encourage an atmosphere of fun," Miller tells Willamette Week. [Illustration by Carson Ellis.]
