First, let me say it’s a free country. God Bless America. I believe that if Blue Oregon blogger, Carla Axtman, wants to work as a social media coordinator for Portland mayoral candidate, Jefferson Smith, she should. Goodness knows, I don’t want to poop in home girl’s oatmeal. She should have a job. If she tweets for money, good for her. If she makes $12,000.00 for five months of doing this, bully for her.


However, let us note for the uninitiated— and political reporters— who pretend this is a fact-based “reporter,” and that Blue Oregon strives for at least fact-based opinion, that it’s not even remotely true. 

Carla Axtman writes so people paying her and their friends are elected. That is all. That’s the objective. 

   
The Blue Oregon blogger is an opinion for hire. She is not attempting to be fair, scrupulous in facts or even ethical. Her objective is to get people elected.
 
She writes for a website that is the same. This is not even a remotely unbiased or fair site. This is a site made simply for touting Democrats and their ideas such as killing coal, raising taxes, health insurance as a ‘right’ and advocating using government as a big wheeeeee charity. 


The head of Blue Oregon, Kari Chisholm, is a politico for hire. He sets up websites and social media for Democrats. Only. He touts candidates on his blog and then works for them getting paid setting up their websites. Most insiders know this. Most people in the general public do not.


I’m not saying they don’t have heart felt opinions; it’s just that the reader is left to sort out whether this is a real opinion or an opinion someone paid for. And that’s a problem.


The point of my tweets to Carla (notice how Jefferson Smith came to her defense, which was entirely beside the point, but it was a nice gesture), is to show that people who hold themselves out to be doing the work of “journalists” of some sort should subscribe to a set of ethical standards. This is foreign to her as you can divine from the exchange nearby. It appears to be foreign to Jefferson Smith. This should concern you. 

Let me be clear: If you’re a journalist (of sorts), you don’t get paid by candidates to make them look good. IT. IS. UNETHICAL.  IT. IS. WRONG. 

You may have a low opinion of journalism, I know I do, but even sloppy journalists know this is bad juju. You can’t get around the fact that this is unethical behavior if she holds herself out as some kind of fair “reporter.” 

But Carla Axtman and Blue Oregon have answered the question themselves. She is not a journalist. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just a fact. Blue Oregon is not a website devoted to fact based opinion, but to touting candidates who agree with them or pay them. I do not take money for my opinions on this blog. For that matter I don’t get paid for my take on stories on my radio talk show, either. I get paid for doing commercials for products I personally endorse, use and think are great and I say so. For those of you who live on Hawthorne, there’s a difference.


Newspapers are dying and remaking themselves into something else. Most people get their news from online media. Just because newspapers are dying doesn’t mean that reporters’ ethics should too.


For those who will look me up and send me howlers about Politi-fact gotchas, save your breath. I have no patience for Janie Harr’s Har unscrupulous “reporting” and the fact that when I demonstrated she was wrong, she didn’t have the guts to report it. In two occasions she changed the parameters of stories to fit her conclusion. That’s unethical.


The media consumer is left to sort out the scrupulous from the unscrupulous. Here’s your first lesson. 

Victoria Taft was a radio journalist in San Diego at station KFMB in the 1980’s and 1990’s. She eventually became the Assistant News Director of a staff of anywhere from 9-17 reporters. She left to come back to Portland. She has won many SPJ and Southern California Press Club awards for stories ranging from consumer reports, investigative journalism to sports. She was an office holder and eventually the first broadcast President of the San Diego Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She now is a radio talk show host at KPAM Radio in Portland. Her journalism background informs her talk sensibilities and she has fun, fun, fun telling anyone who will listen her opinions. She is not paid for her opinions.