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The Oregonian: Inglorious Basterds

BroadwayVik

BroadwayVik

Active member
What the Oregonian has done heretofore is to keep PSU feeling unloved and emotionally-oppressed in denying them their due glory in the press. In the press, the Oregonian really glorifies the Ducks and Beavers when they win. But even in a loss, they usually report from an angle that allows both teams to find the silver lining and to claim a moral victory.

Not so for the Portland State Vikings. When they deserve it most, the Oregonian will find the means to keep this team glory-starved in the local press---even when the national media is singing the Vikings' praises (as in the Basketball Victory against Gonzaga).

Imagine an historical first: PSU beats Oregon in football in a thrilling overtime victory, 43-40. What would the respective Oregonian headlines read? See if this doesn't ring true:

Page 1: DUCKS MISCUE FORCES OVERTIME LOSS, 43-40

Page 6: Vikings gain historical outcome in spite of "classless" play

In the Ducks' story, they would first talk about how embarrassing the loss was to the coaches and players, especially to an FCS level university (treating Portland State like an outsider) and they would then compare the Ducks' loss to Michigan in their loss to Appalachian State. They would do everything they could to spin the story to save the Ducks' faces and preserve them relatively in tact, citing the game as basically a fluke and not likely to have a repeated outcome. Meanwhile, back in Eugene, UO puts a moratorium on playing PSU for the foreseeable future.

In the Vikings' story, they would cite cold statistics and give a detached account of the game and mention that the win as a fluke, not likely repeatable. The key is they would deny the Vikings the glory of the victory they deserve and that in the team's own local press. They are treated as outsiders, as unwanted emotional-orphans. By doing this, the Oregonian is actively seeking the team's emotional harm. Certainly not their well-being.

This press reporting the day after a great victory is the sap-of-life the players need and look forward to. Healthy teams are nurtured this way, finding praise and then become willing to bust-a-gut for the next headline. Every team in this conference has that glory given to them by their local press--win or lose--and that is exactly the juice they get that is being denied our players right here in our own backyard. Denying them this expectation and right must cause build-up of a nagging, unsatisfied emotional hunger and especially when it is an historical victory.

You've heard the phrase "No guts, no glory." But the Oregonian denies PSU glory even when they deserve it!!
No wonder our team suffers from emotional malnutrition, inopportune lethargy and suboptimal performance. Maybe THIS is why Phil Nelson has been amazing at times and underachieving at others.

To guard against this, when such an historical victory comes again the Vikings' way, from what source can the Athletics Department gather up the press' praise of the PSU players? this emotional sap-of-life for athletes from the kind of press that will give them the glory they so richly deserve? The Oregonian will only offer poison. Will the Tribune then offer up praise in sufficient quantity? I believe we can always count on our national media friends, ESPN, and, of course, our own in-house Athletics writing staff.

Reporting the facts is simply not enough. Glory, spirit and honor must also be bestowed. Jon Kasper knew this and how to give Montana the sap-of-life in his writings glorifying Montana's players and coaches, and I believe his words worked wonders in the hearts-and-minds of their players. Do our players deserve anything less?
 
I doubt that the O deliberately tries to down-grade us. The O is still trying to portray itself as a multi-state regional paper, and as such headlines the Pac-10. The Pac-10 is hyper-media driven, hyper-advertising driven. LOTS of advertising. The Big Sky is east of the mountains, actually east of Oregon. Small populations. Very little advertising. You're asking the editors to pay attention to the morale of a local team. They won't. It's not their job. They pay attention to advertising and the bottom line.

CONCEIVABLY if PSU were to join the WAC that might change. I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm just glad they put Beseda on our beat. I hope he stays.
 
I find what you say unconvincing. Are you perhaps affiliated with that inglorious basterd of a newpaper? Not just economics, but political social economics.

It is the job of a newspaper to make money AND be a socially-responsible community asset. Part of that job is to uphold the local university, to be supportive and, certainly, not to cause it harm. No advertising revenue will be lost due to such kind of socially-responsible reporting policy. What right does a newspaper have to berate a public asset without cause the way it does? That public university asset has tremendous value to many thousands upon thousands of people here and the newspaper acts capriciously and maliciously in ways to harm both its perception and value. That is tantamount to unprovoked social aggression. What right does it have to attacking behavior like that?

I'm convinced the Oregonian wants to hurt Portland State athletics by any means at its disposal because any gain at PSU, they perceive, is a gain that could have been realized at one of the other two Pac-10 schools. They also see gains at PSU as building in-state competition against the fortunes of Oregon and Oregon State, which they want to nip-in-the-bud. They likely see it as a dilution of available resources (shrinking of pie-share), a very pessimistic outlook considering other-states' and international resources (making the pie bigger).

They report negative PSU stories with a shout and positive PSU stories---when they have to or feel it to be somehow strategically useful---with a whisper. They act insidiously and connivingly. Once in a great while, they will throw PSU a bone, but only to confound things by drawing a red herring across the path of clearly seeing their publication policies for what they are. Sometimes they are constrained to write a positive story for the sake of credibility, but even those stories certainly lack the level of glory the PSU athletes deserve. In such case, they will starve what glory they can just so long as they can retain being within the bounds of credibility. In this way, they effectively bring punishment the local young men and women athletes and their families who chose to play for Portland State. What right do they have to do that?

Jim Beseda? PSU would be better off with someone who cared about Portland State. He is just "a staff writer," replacable, expendable. Beseda graduated from Oregon, not PSU. His heart is certainly with his Ducks and not with the upstart Vikings. His stories are emotionally sterile, banal and dull, I believe by design. He should write for the Oregon Ducks! If you consider him an asset to PSU, then you might be easily pleased, perhaps misguided or certainly not unaware of the potential good local newspaper writing can really bring to the hearts, minds and spirits of local collegiate athletes.

It doesn't matter if PSU plays in the big sky conference. The local newspaper can still write with supportiveness to be a source of added-value to the spirits and well-being of the local players. Yes, the Vikings will need to rise in terms of conference affiliation to become more relevant, and, undoubtedly, they will do so, but a socially-responsible local paper needs to be encouraging and supportive even in spite of their current big sky affiliation. They, like PSU, would be looking forward in terms of their potential. The Oregonian has no excuse for maintaining a maliciously willful tone of PSU sports journalism designed to deliberately deny Portland State players (and their families) the glory they deserve by starving the emotional rewards due to these PSU's athletes.

Read all about it---It is all in the tone of the stories they publish.
 
Interesting to note that the Seattle Times covers with equal praise, all the Universities in Seattle. Pac-10 may certainly get the headlines and bigger spread (advertising) but the smaller schools: Seattle U, SPU, UPS, etc. will all get positive press when there is something of notariety. I agree with your assessment that the Oregonian shows definite disfavor towards PSU in most if not all articles, it's not even veiled but actually quite transparent and it certainly does a disservice to the paper's writers as being credible and non-biased journalists.
 
You may be right re "socially responsible community asset", though few businesses see it that way. Profit drives. "Social responsibility" comes only after profits are assured. In a few cases, wealthy CEOs msy be "socially responsible" (Knight et al) but I suspect ego dominates there.

I'm more cynical than you. And - perhaps - worn down by this old story. When I first arrived at Portland State College in '65 we were fighting the UO/OSU bias big time. Yes, it was a real war, and the Big O clearly took sides. Amazingly, we gained university status in '69 despite it. It continued long after, thanks to UO/OSU's successful demand that we not "duplicate" their programs. We did it anyway, though resistance still hangs around. This, despite the fact that we've grown into the largest university in the state and obviously will stay that way. U of O stills holds the label "flagship", though the flag is getting a little ragged. Generally speaking, over the last ten-fifteen years it has become common to refer to the "three universities" equally, recognising that PSU has now joined UO and OSU as a full-fledged university. In public perception, if we haven't arrived we will soon.

BUT. The O still sees itself as a regional newspaper, at the very least covering all of the state and SW Washington. There are far more Pac-10 loyal fans in that region than there are Big Sky followers. The O coverage of sports reflects this. You can argue all you like that it's precisely because of the weak coverage of PSU/Big Sky that PSU doesn't grow the loyal fan base. That's true; but the O is driven by numbers, not (I insist) "community spirit". If it weren't, you wouldn't have the O to kick around anymore - and I've done my share of kicking.

Beseda? Do you realize that he's the first regular sports writer assigned by the O to PSU?? For the O, that's a big step up. No, he's not Canzano - for which I'm grateful. But speaking of Canzano, that piece he wrote about PSU's NCAA "penalty" was pretty good. The O is coming around. Keep up the pressure. And if you think the UO/OSU conspiracy still holds, keep on mentioning it. But I don't think it does.
 
Talk to Jack Ohman. He and I were together in a class at PSU and he (if I am not mistaken) does have a degree and holds an associate professorship at PSU. I hope he cares enough for PSU to try to help the school get some attention.
 
I greatly appreciate both your thoughtful, dispassionate replies.

Whatever conference PSU is currently in, the story should be about the university's growth and its march toward fulfillment of its identity and mission; that is, overcoming its earlier oppression, repression, depression, etc. My concern is over arrested development. But thanks to George, Jay and Daniel and Wim, we finally---FINALLY---seem to have punched a rational economic hole through this irrational political barrier.

From a public policy standpoint, this state is CRAZY---absolutely INSANE---to oppress their largest higher educational asset. Suicidally crazy. The Oregonian are a parochial bunch of hayseed-provincialists not worthy of an urban environment. They flash the "Winner of Seven Pulitzer Prizes" on their masthead and figure that entitles them to do any fool thing they want. You can take the banal out of the hackneyed, but you can't take the hackneyed out of the banal. Their politics and ethics are highly suspect. We have bad leadership in this state.

PSU needs to sustain this growth spurt like a teenager who grows to basketball player (tall forward or center) height. I won't be satisfied until full retribution is paid-in-full and the name Portland State becomes synonymous-in-stature to that of Boise State. Oregonian petty politics would rather shoot the hen that lays the golden eggs rather than to allow that hen full, healthy production of its naturally-offered golden eggs. Selfish, childish egomaniacal betrayers of the public trust. That is The Oregonian.
 
John Swinton, Chief of Staff for the New York Times, who is considered the dean of his profession, made a most bold statement. In 1953, at a New York Press Club, he declared,

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it, and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my newspaper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it, and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
 
Is Fentress going to be the 'assigned' writer for PSU football from the Big Oh this year?

I understand that we take a back seat to UO and OSU with regards to coverage for football, but their coverage seems fantastically bad for fall camp this year.
 
Yeah, coverage seems next to non-existent. I suppose we should be grateful for the few stories they've tossed our way; the smaller colleges in our area got zippo coverage. Nothing matters to them but UO and OSU. But I see the Trib had a couple stories this week. Sure would be nice to see the Trib jump up to daily or at least 2-3 times a week. Anything to give the O some competition
 
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