Oregon Media Insiders

Submitted by Anonymous Source (not verified) on Wed, 03/07/2007 - 10:10am.

LynnS wrote:

WWeek finally posts what they know about the case of Tom Hallman, who apparently has been caught accepting an expensive downtown parking space from Andy Wiederhorn--someone he's covered, extensively, in the past:

... But apparently management at the daily has since taken action.

According to sources and an email sent Monday by Oregonian Editor Sandra Mims Rowe to staff, Hallman faces multiple punishments.

The reporter has been suspended two weeks without pay, his senior reporter’s salary (estimated by one newsroom insider to be $90,000, or about $12,000 more than top scale for an average reporter) is frozen, and he will be moved from the paper’s plum-assignment enterprise team to a less prestigious, still-to-be-determined beat.

Considering everything, it seems the punishment is as harsh as could be expected. Surely some of the penalties -- esp. the "can't represent the paper in public forums ..." -- have been considered for awhile? I've seen Hallman in action at one of those forums, and it's painful to watch; his stated methods raise red flags about his reporting habits, and his work of the past couple of years reflects poorly on the O's oversight of his reporting.

Many people would justifiably call Hallman a great writer, but readers deserve great reporters. He isn't one. (Funny ... it occurs to me that Rick Bragg fits the same description. Ick.)