Oregon Media Insiders

Jeers to The Oregonian for shrinking the Sunday Comics. I defy anyone to read Doonesbury today without squinting.

Jeers also for turning over the area of real estate to the Advertising Department. Masking as a news section, that ad supplement was questionable enough when times were flying high. But now real estate is at the very heart of our economic tar pit, and requires hard coverage. Instead we get bylined "stories" about water features. Even though legitimate coverage sometimes appears elsewhere in the newspaper, the existence of a section devoted to the topic implies that's where the coverage is found. "Homes and Rentals" has always been troubling because it imitates the format of actual news content, almost as though Channel 8 set up a side studio and staged a special "newscast" to pimp some clients. Wouldn't happen.

Cheers for today's Editorial Page focus on Ross Island, and for another excellent Chelsea Cain column. Too bad she's buried on 03.