Skip to main content
An interview with Joel Magid, the Portland musician who earlier this month confessed in a Facebook post to committing a sexual assault, became the subject of a social media uproar after KGW posted the video on its website Wednesday evening.
Magid, who appeared in the interview with his lawyer, said he is guilty of the crime he admitted to in his initial post but denied another rape allegation made by a second woman.
"I've paid for my one crime more than I think I expected to," Magid said.
On Sept. 3, Magid wrote on Facebook that he had recently assaulted a woman in an undisclosed location by pulling out his penis and lifting her skirt.
"A friend intervened and stopped my behavior," he wrote. "I was blacked out drunk when this happened and don't remember any of the situation. That doesn't excuse what I did."
Four days later, a woman identified by The Portland Mercury as Erica Ordway (aka Wanda Bones), accused Magid of raping her six years ago. (WW does not normally identify victims of sexual assault but Ordway made a public statement on the subject.)
In the interview with KGW, Magid said he had hoped to start "a discussion about what it looks like for people to take accountability in sexual assault and rape culture" and instead became the focus of "some witch hunt."
His attorney, Lissa Casey, described Magid's online confession as "noble" and called Ordway's accusations "untruthful." (Casey's firm, Arnold Law, initially represented Ammon Bundy.)
In the final two minutes of the original version of the video, which takes place after the interview has concluded, reporter Chris Willis asked Casey if Ordway is a stripper.
"A burlesque dancer, I believe, but I'm not sure," she responded.
"We have burlesque in Portland?" Willis replied, laughing. "I'm hanging in the wrong social circles."
A member of the crew then says, "And then you're a victim of that. You're victimized."
Magid goes on to say, "Sex is complicated. It's actually more complicated than I realized before this happened."
That part of the interview was later removed, with KGW saying there were "technical issues" with the file, according to The Oregonian. But Mercury reporter Doug Brown preserved that section of the video and posted it to Vimeo:
Magid KGW from Doug Brown on Vimeo.
On Twitter, viewers accused the interview of presenting Magid as a victim. 
The 23-minute video disappeared entirely from the site a few hours after it was posted, though the page for the interview remained accessible.
KGW did not respond to requests for comment.
Update, 9/22/16, 12:12 pm: KGW Executive News Director Rick Jacobs has issued the following statement on the Magid interview:
"During an interview we recently posted on our website regarding Portland musician Joel Magid, our staff made insensitive comments. We apologize for those comments. We understand that these comments were offensive, and we have removed the interview from our website."
Update, 9/22/16, 10:24 am: Casey emailed a statement to WW about the deleted interview:
"We're disappointed that the KGW interview was taken down. We had an agreement with KGW that the entire interview would be posted online. Joel wants all of the facts out there. We're not sure why the interview was taken down. We were thankful KGW took the time to let Joel explain himself and we have no problem with the interview being out there for the public to view."
Willamette Week