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I am a businessman who has been working in Portland for several decades. I have read WW off and on during that time but dismissed it for years as being too jaundiced politically to be taken seriously.
That changed in 2004 with the Goldschmidt articles reported by Nigel Jaquiss. [Jaquiss won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2005 for his work revealing that Neil Goldschmidt, the former Portland mayor, U.S. transportation secretary and Oregon governor, had raped an underage girl for several years while he was mayor. —Ed.] In my business, commercial real estate brokerage, we hear lots of rumors about sordid affairs, corruption, collusion, theft and all manner of malfeasance. The Goldschmidt story was known around town, but never unveiled. When WW broke the story about the massive cover-up by The Oregonian, Goldschmidt’s donors, the body politic and, sadly, the victim who was betrayed by her own parents, it finally shed overdue light on all of what we had heard for years.
The “fourth estate” is essentially the only institution we citizens have to tell us the truth. We cannot rely on the clergy, government or private enterprise to police themselves. The proverb “the pen is mightier than the sword” is not hackneyed. The press Is a powerful weapon. We are witnessing just how powerful it is as we watch WW peel back the onion of La Mota and bring the mighty to their knees. It is a mighty weapon that is often mostly misused by one side or the other to promote their own political dogma or doctrine.
WW has proven it can work independently of influence from other institutions and seek out the truth and motivations behind the headlines we are fed every day. Indeed, its influence may be the building block to return this city to the place we had become accustomed to for years.
As long as WW continues on this path, I urge people to become supporters as I have done.