Many of the Oregonian's staffers who point rebuttals on the online discussion have the same attitude (if not worse). Joseph Rose, the "commuter" reporter, is pretty good at it; there's a few others that will hold nothing back when attacking their customer base.

I haven't bought an Oregonian copy in many years; the ads in the newspaper don't encourage me to shop anywhere, and the businesses that earn my business will make sure that I can participate in sales without a newspaper ad (Freddy's is pretty good at that, although I wish you could print the advertisement coupons from the computer.)

Journalism is dead. The connection between the call for "action" against Rep. Giffords by her campaign opponent and Sarah Palin (that Giffords addressed herself on national television) is danced around by all reporting the news.
Great job Stateman Journal, today's paper is already lining the bird cage.

People don't subscribe to the Statesman-Journal (or the East Oregonian, for that matter) to read front page AP wire stories about national stories that happen thousands of miles away. Especially when their readership has the same Google, the same Fox News, and the same radio the rest of us do. They subscribe to those papers to find out what's happening in their city. So now they've lost journalistic credibility because they didn't copy-and-paste a story onto their front page? Please.

The editor was right to tell the guy what he thought.

Bean: Yes, you have a point. However, they are the paper of the state capitol and legislators are in town. Wouldn't an article talking to a few if they have security concerns be a good idea?

It's relatively easy to take a big national story like this one and localize it. What do our U.S. Reps and Senators think?

A few phone calls, some photos off the AP wire and they could have had a nice local story. My guess is that with the cutbacks they have had, they didn't have staff on hand to do this easy story that would have taken a few hours tops.

The SJ is sad these days, sad enough to where we don't take it anymore, and visit online only when there is news we want more information on.

The editor was right to tell the guy what he thought.

The sarcastic comment about "whining" compounded the blunder of burying the story inside.

Guy right. Paper guy wrong. And rude. I knew the bar for traditional, dead tree journalism was low, but I didn't know it had been buried below ground.

"Guy right. Paper guy wrong. And rude. I knew the bar for traditional, dead tree journalism was low, but I didn't know it had been buried below ground."
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True, the Dick was rude, and to a customer no less. Bad business sense, but he works for a newspaper, so that was redundant.

But he was rude to a big whiner. Who knows how many times this Brian Hines guy whines about all the crap in the Statesman? Maybe Brian IS a whiner. He sure has alot to whine about.

And the comment about a local paper is right on. Cut and pasted AP written retreads that people have already read the day before online is a waste to re-read a day later on ink-stained paper, and the Statesman is not after that market segment.

Much better to do a local reaction piece with Salem politicos. Too bad Dick did not mea culpa that the Statesman missed the boat on the local spin on this topic. Also too bad Dick hates all the 'whining' that Whiner Brian Hines does. If he was a real businessman, he would appreciate the whiners more.

No, Brian Hines is no whiner. Have read his blog for a while.

In Salem, the world ends at the city limits. You think PDX is parochial? We got nothing on Salem.

I should know - I grew up there. And that's most of the reason why I don't live there now.

Nice to see the reminder of why.

I can understand his point about it being a local paper. But this was pretty big news. And his response was just plain childish and rude.

There's a reason it's been known locally for decades as the Statesman-Urinal. :-/

Besides, probably all the staff were assigned to follow Duck fans on the way to Arizona.

Ah, I'm very familiar with this style of editor. I worked with one just like him fifteen years ago. Sadly, although his readers wouldn't pee on his head if his face were on fire (to modify Joe Lansdale, I'd stomp it out, but only if I could wear ice skates), he always managed to jam his nose up his boss's butt to the point where he had a nice brown stain from midwaist up. Without fail, no matter how badly these wankers screw up their paper, the only time they leave is with a hefty severance bonus just before the paper implodes.

Someone please go find their front page for Sept. 12, 2001.