Fill-in-the-blank, Portland style
by Steve, January 20th, 2009Bob Packwood
- Offense: sexual abuse and assault, cover-up.
- Cover-up aided by: The Oregonian
- Story broken by: The Washington Post, November 1992
- Outcome: resignation in disgrace from the US Senate after a unanimous Senate Ethics Committee vote to expel him
Neil Goldschmidt
- Offense: statutory rape, cover-up.
- Cover-up aided by: The Oregonian
- Story broken by: Willamette Week, May 2004
- Outcome: far-reaching public disgrace and resignation from life as a public figure
________________________
- Offense: sexual impropriety, cover-up
- Cover-up aided by: The Mercury (whose former news editor took a job with the administration)
- Story broken by: Willamette Week, January 2009
- Outcome: ________________________________
This has nothing to do with Sam Adams being gay, obviously.
This story is about powerful men from Oregon who can’t keep their dicks in their pants, and the local newspapers who protect them.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:54 am
Good rundown.
The O has called for Adams’ resignation, which I found amusing partly due to the facts you have listed.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:30 am
The lie as it was published: (In the Oregonian –Ed.)
“I didn’t get into public life to allow my instinct to help others to be snuffed out by fear of sleazy misrepresentations or political manipulation,” he wrote. “I understand the need for good judgment, and I work very hard to keep within the bounds of propriety –as I did in this case.”
Except for the nature of the relationship, Adams and Ball tell the same basic story: In the summer of 2005, Adams met 17-year-old Beau Breedlove during a lobbying trip to Salem. Breedlove was in the process of coming out of the closet and sought Adams for advice.
Over several months, Breedlove and Adams went to lunch once, ate dinner once and exchanged numerous text messages and phone calls, Adams said. Adams took a date to Breedlove’s 18th birthday party.
Adams said that, in hindsight, he would not have done anything differently. Except for their brief walk from City Hall to dinner, which took five minutes, they were never alone, he said. Breedlove invited Adams to the family party, both men said, because he wanted to show his family that it’s possible to be gay, happy and successful.
Adams, 44, said he’s well aware that everything he does is fodder for reporters, bloggers, gossips and potential political opponents. His City Hall office is a loose place, where eager young interns come and go and the boss’s personal life lies at the heart of a steady stream of jokes.
Adams’ friendship with Breedlove –and the potential for it to be misconstrued –was no exception, current and former aides say. Roland Chlapowski, Adams’ senior policy director for transportation issues, has said that he used to give Adams a hard time whenever he had a new boyfriend: “Now, Sam,” the line went, “make sure he’s older than Beau.”
Adams acknowledged that someone with “a cynical view of the world” could read sinister motives into the active role he played in counseling Breedlove.
But that won’t keep him from helping other men, he said. “When men come to me for advice, I listen, I provide whatever guidance I can, and I tell them my own background,” he said. “I’m not going to be someone who says, ‘I can’t talk to you, it might look bad.