whatamask's blog

This is the post I referred to earlier; I'm bumping it to the top. I have yet to get official comment from the Oregonian, but WWeek's Hank Stern told me in email tonight: "We'll have more on Wednesday, but your poster's comment is accurate."--L

Confused? You won't be, after this episode of... The Dumb and The Arrogant.

Earlier tonight, I sat in a dark bar in downtown Portland. I wondered what the heck that cryptic photo contest in WW this week was about. I recalled seeing on here that someone said the car belonged to O reporter Tom Hallman.

Then a man in a grey jacket moved through the room like smoke and told me the following:

The parking spot belongs to Andrew Weiderhorn, who Tom Hallman wrote an award-winning series about (and which was glowing enough to be called a "blowjob" by WW editor Mark Zusman in the pages of AJR back in 2000). The expensive downtown parking spot was being provided free to Tom Hallman, and now that WW revealed the gift, The O is upset, as well it ought to be.

Are O managers upset at the gift-taking, or that it was revealed, or both? Is this the tip of the Hallman iceberg? Has he been fired? Is there a story forthcoming about ethics and a star reporter's ignorance of them? Who will write about it first, WW or The O?

These questions -- and many others -- will be answered in the next episode...