Oregon Media Insiders

Bend's The Source is reporting that a former Bulletin reporter claims he was fired for not sugar-coating the Bend real estate market:

According to an e-mail that the reporter, David Fisher, sent to Bulletin Human Resources Director Sharlene Crabtree and that has been circulating among the paper’s staff, a story he wrote about the Bend Chamber of Commerce’s annual real estate forecast breakfast on Feb. 25 was edited to take out comments skeptical of an imminent turnaround in the floundering real estate market.

...

The official line going around The Bulletin newsroom is that Fisher was fired for lying about being sick and taking two days off. Not so, said Fisher in his e-mail: He didn’t claim to be sick, but wanted time to cool down before confronting Stearns about the butchered story and asking to be transferred to a different beat where he could cover the news “without what I perceived to be the editors' emotional desire to slant coverage of the real estate market.”

In his e-mail Fisher said he told Stearns that the editing of the Feb. 26 story was part of a “pattern of editing that included misleading headlines, sources being banned from my coverage, story ideas getting spiked, and odd pre-story cajoling, all of which seemed designed by the executive editor [John Costa] to generate more favorable coverage of the local real estate market than I have thought was best in the two years I have been assigned to cover it for the paper. I further told [Business Editor John Stearns] that, although I believed that the articles I had written for the paper were as thorough and as accurate as I could make them, the utter hack job that was done on my Feb. 26 story had led me to conclude that the paper was not willing to cover the industry as honestly as it should …”

Fisher expressed his concerns in a meeting with Stearns on Feb. 28. On March 3, Fisher wrote, Stearns told him he had discussed his request to change beats with Costa. The next day Fisher was fired.

Stearns refused comment to the Source.

And as long as I was digging around at JournalismJobs.com, I thought I'd get myself set up via RSS to see who's advertising for people in the state. Here's the PBJ's advertisement for Managing Editor, posted last week:

The Portland Business Journal is searching for a managing editor who can help make one of the nation's top-notch business weeklies even better. We are looking for an accomplished reporter and writer who is also a great teacher and a strong manager, capable of inspiring our highly skilled staff. The successful candidate will be a collaborator who gets energized by working in a team environment that values creativity, critical thinking and the highest professional standards. Organizational skills are also a plus, as the managing editor shares responsibility for newsroom operations.

Apparently business reporters are the flavor of the day; the Bend Bulletin and the DJC are hiring too.

The Bend Bulletin's James Sinks this so, and apparently a lot of you do too since I've been sent this link a number of times today:

The media — once considered the "fourth estate" because of their important role — today are presenting a skewed view of government, if any at all. And citizens aren’t as equipped to make critical decisions because they are less likely to know how government works and how decisions affect them personally.

It's a devastating critique. Every ND, producer, editor and publisher should read it--and then do something about it.

Loaded Orygun comments on a Ridenbaugh Press piece on Bend becoming its own market. (phew! the blogosphere, so self-referential.) From Ridenbaugh:

KTVZ-TV, which has been an affiliate of NBC, long has been the only important TV player there. Bend residents get the other nets from their Portland affiliates via satellite or cable. The only other local Bend station is KFXO-FOX, a Fox affiliate without local news. KTVZ for years has been walloping it, taking about 84%-16% of local viewership in the ratings.

But on April 17 KFXO is planning to launch local news, which should increase their share somewhat.

Maybe more significantly, Chambers Communications Corporation of Eugene (which runs KEZI9 ABC - Eugene, KDKF31 ABC - Klamath Falls, and KDRV12 ABC - Medford) was reported as planning a new station - presumably, given its other assets, an ABC affiliate - for Bend. If that happens, can CBS be far behind?

All this may have some domino effects, with the reach of Portland broadcast media considerably abbreviated in eastern Oregon. This is worth watching closely.

Loaded Orygun's comment:

If you watch Portland stations, think about the last time you saw a story on Bend or Redmond or Sisters. Now think of one that didn't involve a homicide or disappearance or major fire (or ski conditions). While I certainly cannot hold up TV journalism as the sine qua non of a city's civic growth, anything that supports the idea of Bend as its own viable region instead of "Not Portland/Not Eugene" is probably a positive. The Oregon Central High Desert--your nation's 196th TV market...and climbing!

Thanks to the Anonymous Source who tipped me.

As my online nom de plume might suggest, I care about sports and I have lots of strong opinions about how sports are covered.
What I don't care about is how the Blazers, Oregon or Oregon State are covered (basically, anything that comes with a buffet and a heated pressbox).
That said, I'd like to hear your opinions on how (and how well) local media outlets -- mostly daily and weekly newspapers and occasionally TV -- cover local sports. Most of what I'm interested in is how your local high school teams and small colleges are covered.
Who does a good job? Who works hard? Who just sucks and who doesn't even try?