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Saturday, May 09, 2020

Mercury Does Not Endorse Sam Adams, Nor Doth Bacchus Nor Zeus King of All Lies

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/05/04/28381925/despite-misleading-campaign-ad-the-mercury-does-not-endorse-sam-adams


"The ad is for former Mayor Sam Adams’ campaign for the fourth seat on Portland City Council—a hotly contested race that includes Adams, incumbent Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, and a spate of other credible candidates.

If you zoom in very closely on that ad, you’ll see that while Willamette Week’s endorsement quote comes from this year, the quote from the Mercury comes from an article (not an endorsement) we ran eight whole years ago, in 2012.

Adams’ campaign isn’t technically claiming that we endorsed him in 2020 (this isn’t Mayor Ted Wheeler’s campaign mailer, after all). But by running that quote and our logo so close to another paper’s 2020 endorsement of him, it certainly looks like it.


Most people experience Facebook ads by skimming through them as they keep scrolling—not by zooming in on the fine print or Googling to find out the context of a quote—so it’s safe to say that some viewers of this ad likely assumed Adams had secured the Mercury's endorsement in the 2020 race. 

Former Commissioner Dan Saltzman pulled a similar trick back in 2014, and we called that one out as well.

And this ethically questionable ad choice isn't an isolated incident. Here are a couple other Adams Facebook ads, one of which fails to even include the detail that the Mercury's words are from 2012:

Sure, the Mercury endorsed Adams when he successfully ran for Portland City Council in 2004, and again in the 2008 mayoral race.

 But a lot has happened in Portland politics since then—and in Adams' own career. This year we chose to endorse keeping Eudaly on City Council over an Adams return."


"COACHING BREEDLOVE"

"Wiener coached former legislative intern Beau Breedlove in early 2008, as allegations were first surfacing about his affair with Mayor Sam Adams.

At this point, Adams was lying to Wiener and others about having had sex with Breedlove, and says his relationship with Wiener suffered when the scandal broke."

"Mark was mad," says Adams. "And he had a right to be, and to him went one of my first apologies."

Indeed, Wiener told Time magazine he had called Adams a "fucking moron" after the lies had been revealed, and that he was "pissed and saddened by it."


https://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/the-man-in-the-shadows/Content?oid=2443969

"I don't want to be super paranoid here," says the person who called him an "assfucker." 

"But I don't want this coming back to me at all.

You're going to have a great story that's totally un-attributable, but honestly, that's probably how it should be.

Because if you've got the real shit on Wiener, then nobody is going to want their name anywhere near it."

"I only wish I got to keep all the money that was in those checks," he says. "I wouldn't have to drive my crappy car."

So what's all this about being a "total assfucker"?

"Did they say that about me, or about Mark?" asks Leonard.

"I deny it, if it's about me. As for 'don't cross him'? Here's what Mark doesn't like.

He hates it when people lie to him. He's a very, very loyal person and he doesn't like people who are duplicitous, underhanded, or sneaky."
__________________

"Despite Misleading Campaign Ad, the Mercury Does Not Endorse Sam Adams"

"Despite what Facebook campaign ads might suggest, the Mercury has not endorsed Sam Adams for Portland City Council in the May 2020 primary."


Readers may know that we posted our endorsements last week—so why the need to now publish an article about who we aren’t endorsing? 

We can thank Adams' campaign for that."

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"Mentoring?"-----Sure.

It's not even astounding that a former Mayor of Portland who apparently "groomed" and courted a high school age teenager is running for public office in the same town.

It isn't astounding. It's the status quo of double standards.

It's SAD sad sad.






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