Oregon Media Insiders

If you know negative coverage is imminent, you do your damndest to blunt the negativity by getting your talking points included in the negative coverage. It's a bonus if you can do it without directly providing an interview or written statement, which would validate the story.

The O did this very effectively by "leaking" Sandy Rowe's staff e-mail to Willamette Week, excerpts of which are peppered throughtout the WW piece. It's easy to pick out the O's talking points in the WW piece:

-The problem was limited to Hall
-Hall will be disciplined
-Accepting gifts is not tolerated at the O

The result is clearly much softer coverage than if WW had simply broken the story and forced the O to scramble.

From a PR standpoint, brilliantly played by the O. Let's see what, if anything, they do now.