The latest example that proves Steve Novick is a badass

Carla Axtman

Portland City Commissioner Steve Novick has been a long-time contributor here at BlueOregon, to the delight of many. Novick has a way with unvarnished truth, when he chooses to exercise it.

Today at his official website, Novick directs the exercise square at The Oregonian:

You want to talk about mediocre? A paper that only delivers four times a week, now that's mediocre. You want to question our commitment to jobs? Seriously? The paper that specializes in firing people - good people like Ryan White and Scott Learn - wants to talk about jobs?

We're the best City Council in the league. And we're not going to be bullied by some sorry Orange County right-wing publisher. We'll be here after you're gone, Mr. N. Christian Anderson III - after the Newhouse family wakes up and realizes that it's economic idiocy to try to foist a Fox News paper on a progressive readership.

And don't think for a minute that anything you write will have any influence on us at all. Lions don't concern themselves with the opinions of sheep.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a city begins to declare its independence from a media structure incapable of truly offering its progressive population the proper oversight it deserves. The problem is, of course, that we actually need The Oregonian to do its job: to investigate real wrongs AND real rights. And we need them to do it not just in Portland, but throughout the state. That can't be done when we don't trust them.

Commissioner Novick is articulating what so many Oregonians believe about the paper: they're so busy positioning themselves as conservative outlet with "balanced" opinions that they're neglecting to serve the progressive population that's their bread and butter. Further, they spend so much time shifting good reporters from outlying areas to cover Portland and the Legislature that the rest of the state coverage suffers dramatically.

While I suspect that Commissioner Novick (or anyone else under scrutiny in an elected position to public office) probably dislikes being criticized in the paper, it would be a helluva lot easier to take it seriously if the local version of the Fourth Estate actually reflected the region it serves.

By Carla Axtman Jan. 21, 2014