Angela Valdez penned this week's WW cover story alleging that The Oregonian "manufactured" a meth epidemic by devoting at least 261 stories to methamphetamine abuse over the past 18 months, and by relying "on bad statistics and a rhetoric of crisis, ultimately misleading its readers into believing they face a far greater scourge than the facts support." Steve Engelberg, managing editor/enterprise for The Oregonian, fired back in a strongly-worded letter on Romenesko that disparaged Valdez's reporting as "one-sided," "intellectually dishonest," "built on anecdotal comments that ignore the facts" and meeting "no acceptable journalistic standard." The fundamental disagreement between the papers seems to be whether the number of meth users is increasing, and how that number should be measured.
Nigel Jaquiss' Oct. 19, 2005 cover story described a number of irregularities at Physicians' Hospital in Northeast Portland. According to an Associated Press update, the story led to a federal investigation, at the conclusion of which the hospital was notified it will no longer qualify for Medicare reimbursements. Physicians' has until March 19 to meet federal guidelines or lose its provider contract, which, according to a Web-only WW update, could cost the hospital 30 to 50 percent of its revenue.
Amendments to the Pulitzer rules announced Wednesday will allow newspapers to submit online-only material for consideration in all 14 journalism categories. In a Washington Post article, Pulitzer administrator Sig Gissler pointed to last year's prize-winning entry from Willamette Week in the investigative reporting category as a factor in the board's decision to make the changes. The old rules forbid Willamette Week from submitting the story that was published on its Web site the day before its award-winning article appeared in print.
In a Nov. 30 cover story, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Nigel Jaquiss exposed the involvement of the local management of Portland General Electric in "tax dodges and financial machinations that cost Oregonians nearly $1 billion over the past eight years." Jaquiss supported his claim with financial records and copies of internal e-mails. As a result, the Portland City Commissioner launched a criminal investigation into PGE, the state's largest utility. The investigation was written up (with due credit to Willamette Week) in The Oregonian and several other outlets. In addition, in November a public defender resigned after WW revealed his indecency convictions and a fire official was fined as a result of wrongdoing exposed by the paper.
Back in April, Willamette Week asked the city of Portland about $85,000 in contracts that Fire Bureau manager Michael Speck awarded to a company owned by his son. The city then launched an investigation and, after the paper published the story, suspended Speck for a month without pay. According to a story this week in the Oregonian, Speck has been ordered to pay a $6,000 penalty because investigators found that he had broken ethics laws.
Restaurant Reviewer Jim Dixon is under fire for his negative review of Portland's Castagna. Dixon summarized his own review thusly: "So what's my problem? In a word: salt." The restaurant owners then sent a 50-pound salt lick and a letter to the editor drawing attention to Dixon's side business importing and selling sea salt. Willamette Week's Nov. 2 issue contains two letters slamming Dixon and editor Kelly Clarke, as well as a lengthy response from Dixon in which he announces that a disclaimer will be added to future reviews. The commotion has been sufficient to draw the attention of the Portland Tribune.
The scoop Nigel Jaquiss got about political leader Neil Goldschmidt was one that would create a terrible stir in Oregon, if only he could nail it down. If he couldn't lay out sufficient proof, he risked destroying his paper, Willamette Week. Jaquiss describes the twists and turns that led to the publication of the stories that won him the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting, along with an AltWeekly Award. This is the seventh in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
AAN announced today that it had established a multi-pronged effort to provide immediate relief to employees of its New Orleans-based member paper who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The centerpiece of the effort is a special fund that the association has established in its Alternative Newsweekly Foundation to accept charitable contributions from members who want to provide immediate assistance to Gambit Weekly employees. Several AAN-member companies have already announced significant contributions to the fund.
