Comments on: The 30-Year Secret Revealed

The 30-Year Secret Revealed

..ooOOoo....ooOOoo.. — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 12:34:46 -0800

With this year's Pulitzer Prizes announced, the award for Investigative Reporting went to Nigel Jaquiss of Williamette Week, a Portland alternative newsweekly. Jaquiss' story revealed the "30-year Secret" that led to the downfall of one of Oregon's most influential politicians, helped foster a public backlash against corporate greed, and exposed a conspiracy of silence, favoritism, and scandal among the powerful in Oregon.

By: ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo..

..ooOOoo....ooOOoo.. — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 12:36:18 -0800

crap, first link should be Pulitzer Prizes.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 12:57:59 -0800

fixed the link. nice post.

By: iamck

iamck — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 13:01:44 -0800

Whereas I've always enjoyed the Mercury's particular brand of humor, WWeek has always had a solid reputation for journalism, which IMO is what's kept them viable.

By: matteo

matteo — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 13:26:06 -0800

I see that Marilynne Robinson won the Fiction prize. I hear very different reports on Gilead (from "very boring" to "very brilliant"). any readers here? opinions? re poetry, I don't care much about Kooser, but he looks like a nice enough gentleman

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 13:39:03 -0800

Congratulations to Nigel Jaquiss and Willamette Week. Most Oregonians did not know why bright young Neil Goldschmidt suddenly abandoned a promising political career. A man of ideas and action, he was mayor of Portland, governor of Oregon, U.S. Secretary of Transportation - then retired from public service. His inability to discipline himself created a tragedy for him and his family and the young girl, but a loss for Oregon as well.

By: underer

underer — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:10:18 -0800

But he was still so powerful after retiring. It seemed like nothing ever got done unless Goldschmidt was behind it. I really like Gilead. Has anyone here read that Gass essay on the Pulitzer?

By: twsf

twsf — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:23:39 -0800

In other Portland Pulitzer news, Steve Suo and Erin Hoover Barnett of The Oregonian were finalists in the National Reporting category for their "groundbreaking reports on the failure to curtail the growing illicit use of methamphetamines."

By: unsupervised

unsupervised — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:26:56 -0800

Fascinating read. The part I find most interesting about the Goldscmidt affair is the apparent inability to reconcile the two faces of the man. Willamette Week taking a break from its expose of his child molestation to remind us that he's a brilliant politician. The Oregonian struggling to find a way to break the story, arguing internally about their choice of the word "affair" to describe a young girl's rape. It's odd to think that, if you do enough good, that even the most heinous of acts can be forgiven and even forgotten. The oddest part is that the good need not be penance for the wrongdoings. He could not regret a single minute, keep it to himself, and still get a civic center named after him. Too much to wrap my head around.

By: dances_with_sneetches

dances_with_sneetches — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:34:25 -0800

I was stunned by Nick Anderson's editorial cartooning. All of the examples they give are brilliant, as good as I've seen anyone summing up and lampooning a story in a single frame. http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2005/editorial-cartooning/works/

By: theonetruebix

theonetruebix — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:40:33 -0800

From the sour grapes file: "I read a letter against the Willamette Week winning the Pulitzer Prize today in the office. It was written by the Editor of the Portland Mercury, Phil Busse."

By: sixpack

sixpack — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 14:57:58 -0800

Just a nod here for my colleague Jim MacMillan who spent the last year shooting for AP. He has several pieces in the winning entry, including this shot.

By: Danf

Danf — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 15:27:36 -0800

It is interesting that the Oregonian, the daily rag in Portland, which has tended Republican (albeit the moderate type that Oregon used to produce) had material on this issue and decided not to run with it, while left-leaning Willamette Week did, brilliantly. I gathered from the coverage that the woman involved was at best ambivalent about the coverage. . .I hope that her life somehow gets better.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 04:02:45 -0800

See, in Canada, you can have sex with all the fourteen-year-old babysitters you want. Although I imagine it all depends, when it hits the media...