journals of note

The other day, The Oregonian’s above the fold front page had the headline “Blood Everywhere”.  It was the big story, more details on the tragic random shooting spree by a lone gunman at the under-age downtown club.  (Sympathies to all involved).  The headline, I thinks, was inappropriate — I won’t say “Literally ‘If it Bleeds it Leads'”, because that would entail a novel type of printing, so I substitute the word “figuratively” for “literally”.

I wandered to the Oregonian online and its coverage on the story, and looked down in the comments.  This is not such a good idea — what you will see is people throwing shots at the Mayor.  But I guess it shows how hard-wired people are to the Sam Adams story to wedgie Sam Adams in that.

Meantime, a Willamette Week box downtown has been emptied, with someone having written something like, I don’t know Tabloid “Journalism”.  The Beat marches on from there.

For some slight explication on previous post, I do think Adams should go, but I don’t think so with enough force to pick up pitch forks.  And the one thing Adams must know comes from his status as “First Gay Mayor of a Major American City”, Portland being Media Market #25 (or is it, like 35?)– and there lies Adams’s problem:  I don’t have much doubt about most cities from Market #1 through 25 in being able to elect a Mayor who is gay, but he just screwed up the slowly moving out to the media markets that make Wheel of Fortune an enduring commodity.

Actually that last point about Wheel of Fortune was a non-sequitur, forced to mention that odd shift in cultural norms.  I don’t know how Wheel of Fortune ratings break down by way of urban / suburban/ rural.

My point is here to compare to Obama, who I can find a news article saying Obama’s election has inspired various black elected officials to make that next bold step to a further higher office — Representative Artur Davis of Alabama, eyeing the Alabama Governorship, is the best example.

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