Move over, Snarky.

There's a new kid in town.

And it's bigger, meaner - and in print.



It is Bend Weekly, this town's newest freebiee newspaper. I picked up its very first copy last Friday - Volume 1, Number 1. And I instantly fell in love with it.

Because unlike the dominating paper, The Bulletin, who would rather pretend that the town we live in is perfect and refuses to run a negative story against a local business that is or could potentially become an advertiser - no matter how appropriate the story - this little paper that could is not afraid of flinging dirt. And right on the front page too.

I quote:
Roger Pollock looks like a pillar of the community. He is on the board of Oregon Partnership, a statewide non-profit promoting healthy kids and communities through drug and alcohol awareness and prevention programs.

Pollock has been the subject of many profiles over the years in The Oregonian and the Portland Business Journal and he is the man behind Buena Vista Custom Homes, who recently announced entering the Central Oregon housing market for the first time after securing 455 homebuilding lots in the Bend area.

While Buena Vista Custom Homes touts being named the fastest growing homebuilder in the nation by Builder Magazine in 2005, what the company is not touting is their owner’s troubled history including drug arrests, assault charges and lawsuits.

[...]

Do Bend citizens deserve to know the full truth about his legal infractions? Should central Oregonians be privy to the not-so-dreamy past of the man building their future dream homes?

Most people are looking at the boost to the Bend homebuilding industry. After all, the current average cost of a Buena Vista home is $440,006; which means the total value of the Bend area developments could eclipse $200 million.

While many see the value in the changes Pollock will bring to Bend, many in the community are hoping his own values have changed as well.

Bravo, I say.

Bend Weekly sure lost themselves a potentially lucrative advertiser by printing this, but I congratulate them on their titanium balls.

Truthiness rules.

Move over? They pay their staff, unlike us.

So what?

They are also running a print paper that needs advertising to sustain itself. By running said story, they bit the hand that feeds them. Ergo - titanium balls.

Snarky doesn't have ads, and doesn't have anything to loose. You guys are flinging dirt from behind a wall of anonymity. Ergo - only soft copper balls ... ;-)

Truthiness -- god I love that word.

Haven't seen the publication myself -- doubt it's distributed too many places around here.

All I have to say is ....



WHATever

:)