Wow, Allen - you have really got your panties in a bunch over Allen Clausen's journalism. Luckily, I have a simple solution for you. Don't read the Northwest Examiner! See, its really simple! I assume that most readers, like me, really enjoy reading Allen's journalism and benefit from his perspective on things. I even donate to his foundation, to support his work. Noone has a gun to your head, so just stop doing something that brings you so much anguish! The paper will di just fine without you.
Allen is obviously one of those people who somehow gets angry at fellow citizens for not wanting to pay some of the highest taxes in the nation while being subjected to drug-addled homelessness and crime every time they walk out their front door. Not wanting to be physically attacked or threatened outside their own home is apparently also asking too much.
Hopefully he’s participating in Keith Wilson’s brilliant housing initiative by taking some of them into his own home. Judging by his self-righteous, completely detached-from-reality response, I assume he must be personally housing at least 10 of them by now?
I may be the victim of mistaken identity. I believe JW is referring to letter-writer Allen Duarte.
We print all letters submitted for publication if they pertain to our area of the city or something covered in the paper. We do not screen them for alignment with our editorial positions.
From one of the letters: "Portland City Administrator Raymond Lee signed the mediated settlement in secret with PGE anyway."
Will someone explain where City Administrator Raymond Lee derives the legal authority to involve himself in this matter? Doesn't he report to Mayor Wilson? Doesn't the revised city charter deprive the city administrator of an independent policy making role?
On the surface, it seems like an alarming case of overreach.
This letter illustrates the very writing style it criticizes. Rather than engaging Mr. Classen’s reporting with specific facts or demonstrating where his conclusions are incorrect, it relies heavily on labels such as “reactionary,” “solipsistic,” “despicable,” “tedious,” and “comically ominous,” while repeatedly assigning motives that the writer cannot know. As Des McGrath remarks in The Last Days of Disco, there are “propaganda uses of language.” Whether or not one agrees with that characterization, it serves as a useful reminder that rhetoric can sometimes substitute for analysis when labels replace evidence. Even phrases such as “the least fortunate members of our society” frame the discussion in moral terms before the underlying arguments are examined.
There are legitimate questions that could be raised about the Examiner’s reporting or editorial decisions, but those arguments would be far more persuasive if they were supported by evidence rather than rhetoric. If the goal is to hold journalism to a higher standard, that same standard should apply equally to those criticizing it.
That said, I do agree with one point in the letter: the Examiner’s prolonged coverage of the Food Front saga eventually became tedious.
Wow, Allen - you have really got your panties in a bunch over Allen Clausen's journalism. Luckily, I have a simple solution for you. Don't read the Northwest Examiner! See, its really simple! I assume that most readers, like me, really enjoy reading Allen's journalism and benefit from his perspective on things. I even donate to his foundation, to support his work. Noone has a gun to your head, so just stop doing something that brings you so much anguish! The paper will di just fine without you.
Allen is obviously one of those people who somehow gets angry at fellow citizens for not wanting to pay some of the highest taxes in the nation while being subjected to drug-addled homelessness and crime every time they walk out their front door. Not wanting to be physically attacked or threatened outside their own home is apparently also asking too much.
Hopefully he’s participating in Keith Wilson’s brilliant housing initiative by taking some of them into his own home. Judging by his self-righteous, completely detached-from-reality response, I assume he must be personally housing at least 10 of them by now?
I may be the victim of mistaken identity. I believe JW is referring to letter-writer Allen Duarte.
We print all letters submitted for publication if they pertain to our area of the city or something covered in the paper. We do not screen them for alignment with our editorial positions.
Yes, Allen with an “E” is who I am referring to.
From one of the letters: "Portland City Administrator Raymond Lee signed the mediated settlement in secret with PGE anyway."
Will someone explain where City Administrator Raymond Lee derives the legal authority to involve himself in this matter? Doesn't he report to Mayor Wilson? Doesn't the revised city charter deprive the city administrator of an independent policy making role?
On the surface, it seems like an alarming case of overreach.
RE: Allen Duarte’s letter
This letter illustrates the very writing style it criticizes. Rather than engaging Mr. Classen’s reporting with specific facts or demonstrating where his conclusions are incorrect, it relies heavily on labels such as “reactionary,” “solipsistic,” “despicable,” “tedious,” and “comically ominous,” while repeatedly assigning motives that the writer cannot know. As Des McGrath remarks in The Last Days of Disco, there are “propaganda uses of language.” Whether or not one agrees with that characterization, it serves as a useful reminder that rhetoric can sometimes substitute for analysis when labels replace evidence. Even phrases such as “the least fortunate members of our society” frame the discussion in moral terms before the underlying arguments are examined.
There are legitimate questions that could be raised about the Examiner’s reporting or editorial decisions, but those arguments would be far more persuasive if they were supported by evidence rather than rhetoric. If the goal is to hold journalism to a higher standard, that same standard should apply equally to those criticizing it.
That said, I do agree with one point in the letter: the Examiner’s prolonged coverage of the Food Front saga eventually became tedious.