(MK 20) OUTview Debuts with a Scandal!

By MK Scott
OUTview Publisher

I am not just celebrating my 20th Anniversary this month, but also OUTview's 2nd. On January 31, 2009 the OUTview Brand made a smashing debut on the (Now Defunct) Q-Radio with a Special report on a Hot news item regarding Portland's newly sworn in Gay Mayor, Sam Adams.

If you have been out of touch with your TV, Internet, Facebook friends, Newspapers, then you haven’t heard about the explosion that hit Portland, OR before the day of the inauguration of our first black president. The first gay mayor of a major US City, Sam Adams (No, NOT the beer) was forced to admit publicly that he lied when asked during, campaigning for Mayor in 2007, if he had an improper sexual relationship with an 18 yr old Legislative intern (Beau Breedlove) in 2005. This prompted a firestorm of negative press and a combination of both gays and straights expressing there fear and hate toward Adams. The storm raged on and hit its boiling point when Portland’s only Gay publication, Just Out, requested that Adams should resign immediately. A majority of the GLBT community protested Just Out was not their voice and it isn’t what the whole community believes. Elliot Young (pictured), a Professor at Portland’s Lewis and Clark College, was one of the first to start the ‘Support Sam’ campaign, which in 4 Days had over 3,400 supporters. Young had been on a media tour and had given numerous interviews all over town in 4 days. I was lucky to get him, even on a Sunday!

Just before the interview, Young learned that Adams had decided because of the Support Campaign(s) that he would not resign.

I had invited Portland activist, Stephen Cassell (Creator of the "I am with Sam" Facebook page, but he declined). Later in the week, KOIN TV had posted a news Item that Breedlove was a convicted Felon, I posted this item on My Personal Facebook page. Cassell sent a public letter to his group calling me a "Tabloid" Journalist. The next day, Erika Hedrick of the 'In defense of Sam' forward Cassell's letter to her group!

I sent the following rebuttal:
When I heard of the Breaking News story of Beau Breedlove was a convicted felon, which came from a reputable news source (KOIN 6). The only reaction was from Stephen Cassell, (whom with a knee-jerk reaction), proceeded to write an open letter to me and send it to the members of his FB group page ‘I am with Sam’. The next day, Erika Hedrick of ‘in defense of Sam’ placed the letter on her page. From that I got a ‘very’ long e-mail from a friend of Beau’s responding to a letter that shouldn’t have been written in the first place.


Later that night, I saw both KOIN and KATU news where the lead story should have been about communications director, Wade Nkrumah, resignation. That should have been the big story on KOIN 6’s website, not the story about Beau’s past.


But you should know that being in the news media and if there is a big story (e.g. sex scandal) the media in all spectrum will delve in the past of everybody involved. This is the essence of the Media to be fair and in partial, but also ratings come to play.

The next night, KATU interviewed Beau Breedlove’s dad, where he practically called Sam ‘a Pedophile’. I won’t even touch that, because I think that KATU story was much worse. I’m shocked that no one has even reacted to that story.

It turns out I was right, a fews months later, Breedlove posed nude for Unzipped Magazine and the Oregon Attorney General dropped all charges against Adams, due to Breedlove's  incredibility with the Unzipped appearance AND the Criminal record. Since then, 2 recall campaigns failed, Adams is still in office, and Cassell never apologized.

I spoke with Elliot Young last week about what has happened in the Past 2 Years: "Well two years later, and two failed recall efforts later, it reminds me that the recall effort was a huge waste of time and effort. Sam is mayor, and whether you like what he has done as mayor or not, none of that has anything to do with who he may have kissed in a bathroom stall. I'm just glad that there were so few people obsessed with Sam's private life in Portland that they couldn't even manage to get enough signatures for a recall. Portland rules."
 
Thank You Adams and Young for making the Launch of OUTview a smashing success!