So many of their columnists were brain-dead, it was unreal. The funniest of them was their music critic, Ed Ward. Ward ran a series of articles about one of the old disco clubs, and talked about how terrible their music selections were. The club invited him to DJ one night. The crowd hated his music selection so badly, they started throwing things at him.
They ran another article about the "poor homeless." They followed a guy around for a day to chronicle how rough his life was, and how difficult it was for him to find a job. In this sympathetic portrayal, he spent part of the morning getting stoned, spent part of the afternoon drinking, and wandered into one place looking for a job. I sent them a "letter to the editor," asking how many jobs the Statesman had for people who spent all day getting stoned and drinking. No response.
A couple of their other "feature writers" did articles complaining about how downtown businesses were so cruel to the poor. They complained about the downtown grocery stores getting upset over the theft of shopping carts, and the removal of benches from in front of businesses. I knew many of the business owners, and they told me they were tired of getting to work and spending a half hour every morning sweeping broken beer bottles out from in front of their stores, and trying to wash the urine smell away. They also said they were tired of losing business because the transients scared away customers and panhandled relentlessly.
The Statesman building had a secured parking lot with security cameras and rentacops to run people off. The Statesman was incredibly two-faced. They wanted all the other businesses to shoulder the brunt of having thugs and addicts standing in front of their businesses, but they kept them out of their parking lot.
LOL Great story - thanks for sharing.