On the Cutting Edge of Journalism (ha!)

I'm not really sure whether to be proud of this or laugh at it, but I'm sharing it nonetheless. The Willamette Week, our alternative news weekly, just won a Pulitzer. I'd love to celebrate this achievement for the often overlooked Portland press - and especially trumpet the fact that the scrappy, edgy "cool" paper full of escort ads and indie rock reviews won journalism's highest honor while our one daily newspaper, the delusionally righteous (and predictable) Oregonian, came away empty-handed for once. The Willamette Week is supposed to be the newspaper of my generation, and I should see this award as an optimistic sign that the establishment is open to a new guard.

The thing is, the scrappy, edgy "cool" Willamette Week also takes itself too seriously. They are the kind of publication that talks about itself - brags about itself - in its own pages (like how the Post likes to pat itself on the back when they publish a gossip bit before anyone else and publish that fact as if it's gossip itself). The "Willy Week" just thinks it's cooler than everyone, cooler than even its readers, and I hate that elistist bullshit. Jane has that same cooler than thou attitude. What's even worse about the Willamette Week is that it's gone beyond just discovering the next "it" local band and offering up hipster horoscopes; it's now priding itself on its tenacious, unflinching investigative reporting (which, I have to admit, must be good because that's what the Pulitzer was awarded for), while looking with disdain on the "lifestyle" coverage (movies, books, retail) that Portlanders really pick up the free pub to read. Should I fault the paper for trying to gain respect for serious journalism, trying to remake the "fluff" rag (which I personally love) into a hard-news-driven paper, serving as a governmental and big business watchdog, digging up secrets and righting long covered-up wrongs? First, their reporting forced the president of my college to resign (deservedly so) after losing $10 million in a bad investment, and now they've won the Pulitzer for uncovering a former governor's sexual relationship with a 14-year-old that had been ignored for 30 years. I admire what they're doing from a journalistic standpoint. I just can't shake the feeling that they're muckracking is more about gaining attention - and awards - for themselves rather than serving their readership. And goddamnit, I just wish that along with their so-called noble motives, they were able to have a sense of humor about themselves as well.

Anyway, who really cares what I think about it. In the end, it's pretty damn cool that our weekly won a Pulitzer. So I guess I'm proud of this. And I'll leave it at that.