BTW, do you think the self-righteous Zoobomber in the video actually said "gashole"? I'd bet my last nickel he's lying about that. What else is he lying about?

Speaking of the O, then there's this:

Better than fuel igniting at Reed.

The Zoobomber, as a quote, tell a lot about the depth of the big Os info sources.

I also note that, in the "...not in Portland..." PR fantasy piece, McAtee was A cyclist who allegedly used his bike to attack a driver, after the driver chided him for running a stoplight. In the next breath we are assured that poor Rehnberg was the victim of A motorist who chased down a cyclist, forcing him onto the hood of the car for five blocks, after the cyclist yelled at the driver for going too fast.

Any bias here?

When I saw that headline this morning I thought "who leaned on the Oregonian to defuse this story?"

The police, I'm guessing, before more beatdowns ensue.

Just for what it's worth: The Oregonian newsroom and OregonLive share corporate parents, but they aren't partners to the extent that is widely assumed.

The Oregonian provides content, but the display choices and execution thereof -- both good and bad -- are done by OregonLive.

It's all about sensationalism. All print media which is experiencing a drop in subscriptions and falling advertising revenues is grasping at straw to desperately attract readers at any cost.

I think that's why all the early morning papers have sports on the front page (probably because they can't publish a big picture of a nekkid lady), the Oregonian used the inflammatory headline about a "war" this morning and Willamette Week insists on running a stupid titallating pull line on every cover usually referring to a sex act or body parts in a pathetic attempt to grab the attention of passersby.

Just picked up the latest Willy Week and, sure enough, the pull quote this week says:

"I can tell it contains nuts . . . but whose?"

There's also a Murmurs column headline inside that cheekily shrills, "News as hot as a driver-cyclist fight."

The O is now reporting on things NOT happening in Portland?

No wonder they are losing any audience they ever had.

Great piece from Moyers on the media:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/main/article/3790/

I'm not one to defend the O, but the "War between bikes and cars? Not in Portland" article is true, mostly. As a bike commuter for the past dozen years, I've found Portlanders to be generally civil, courteous and accommodating--with the possible exception of certain people who comment on blogs.

The news media feast on conflict, and therefore they blow up these kinds of stories to the point of freaking out their readers or viewers. If you get all your local news from television, you probably believe there are murderers, rapists and worse lurking just around the corner from your house.

In my almost 3 decades in Portland, I only witnessed two incidents of biker road rage-but I heard of others. These are a refreshing break from the tedium of the accomodating practitioners of "civility". I am reading John Kroger's book, Convictions. It contains fascinating information about Mafia. It tells how violent Italian mobsters ran the less aggressive groups out of New York and Chicago. Where did they go? I start thinking about all the comments I have heard about Portland being a dumping ground for displaced mobsters and my favotite: "Mafia controlled courts and ubiquitous cafe latte". And the comments I have heard from news people to the effect that anyone who confronts obvious evidence of racketeering is "rude". It says so much for Portland that even its mobsters are polite. Kroger talks about how cultural changes make mafia networks obsolute. Changes I would like to see are a critical look at decorum and "civility" for its own sake, as well as the code of silence among lawyers who know better.

That's obsolete.