When is an apology truly warranted?
Therese Bottomly, editor of the Oregonian, issued an infamous apology in 2022. Unfortunately the Oregonian's episodes of Yellow Journalism extend to more recent hit pieces that ALSO warrant apologies.
Therese Bottomly — the editor of the Oregonian Newspaper is either liked and admired or disliked and regarded as biased, overly political and ultimately out of touch with the modern world. Despite what Oregonians think of her, she garnered national attention for issuing a recent apology for the documented and ugly racism the Oregonian Newspaper was known for disseminating during the late 1800s and even long after the turn of the century.
This pattern began as far back as 1861, when the newspaper began publishing. Two editors who were known and indeed became notorious for their blatant “…racist and xenophobic views,” were Harvey Scott and Henry Pittock. In the 2022 published apology, Bottomly provides some interesting admissions about being the editor of the Oregonian when she writes…
“Newsrooms tend to rush forward from deadline to deadline. We are not good at introspection or covering ourselves.”
This is true and Bottomly is clearly well aware of it. But what is more important, apologizing for the morally reprehensible conduct of dead men who were socially conditioned to be bigots from cradle to grave, and lived well over 100 years ago, or apologizing to those human beings the Oregonian’s careless journalism has harmed in the here and now, with people who are still alive?
Some folks accuse Bottomly of taking advantage of the “woke” political climate of today and of having indulged in some serious virtue signaling with her apology letter. If she wanted to make herself look good, in terms of projecting the image that she exists on some kind of pastoral moral high ground, she succeeded. She was praised and congratulated for the apology letter and her apparent courage in writing it. She was also rewarded by being selected as an honoree in the 2022 Women of Influence Awards — a direct result of the apology letter.
Many personally believe the apology letter was pure politics, business and little else.
It was motivated by a shrewd newspaper editor who knew this manner of seemingly heartfelt disclosure would secure her a place in the liberal community as an ally and apologist for sins committed by men who lived and died numerous decades ago.
No one of average intelligence doubts that Pittock and Harvey and their numerous buddies were all casual racists, misogynists and bigots, but what real purpose was there in writing the apology letter, other than to make Bottomly look good, and thereby increase the readership of the Oregonian Newspaper?
Money. That is what motivated Bottomly to pen the letter in the first place. Money and ultimately the survival of her penniless newspaper.
In one section of the letter, Bottomly waxes philosophical about how the Oregonian must look inward, make amends to those they have hurt and how much “hard work” is ahead. She states they must commit to “shining a light on injustices.”
So, are those the injustices committed by dead newspapermen from over 100 years ago? Or injustices committed by those journalists at the Oregonian who are still alive, who hurt, insulted and slandered the people of today?
Another section of Bottomly’s letter reads: “Even today, we know we still don’t always get it right when it comes to our coverage, and there remains work to do.”
So, if Bottomly concedes that they don’t “get it right,” would a restorative justice approach also include apologizing to the various families of murder victims the Oregonian has hurt with their questionable coverage? Including a particular journalist who was smeared as well?
Bottomly ends the letter with these pristine words…
“This has been a painful and necessary exercise of self-examination. It’s a reminder of the hard work ahead. We must continue to be vigilant about stories we are missing, about recognizing our implicit biases. We know racism remains pervasive and we are committed to shining a light on injustices. This history is hard to read but you must. And you must hold us to our pledge to always do better.”
Again, if Bottomly pledges that she will continue “…shining a light on injustices” and that her readership must “…hold us to our pledge to always do better,” would that also include apologizing to those people the Oregonian has harmed, recently?
BOTTOMLY MUST HAVE KNOWN
Given that Therese Bottomly was a fairly influential and high ranking editor back in 2005, it is plausible to presume she was involved in the writing and editing of many important feature articles.
One of the most notorious and factually incorrect Oregonian features was published Sunday, May 22nd, 2005.
It was called FACTS DISPUTE FRANCKE CONSPIRACY. The feature detailed what the Oregonian Newspaper concluded had happened after Michael Francke, a judge and the Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections was murdered the evening of January 17, 1989 as Francke was heading to his car after work.
I have read this disturbing 2005 “hit piece” and to describe this feature article as serious journalism is asking quite a lot of anyone capable of doing a close reading. The piece was so carelessly tossed together, rather like a cheap salad, and so filled with misinformation, victim blaming and inaccuracy as to be considered anything other than what it is, which is a picture perfect example of sensationalistic and highly biased Yellow Journalism.
“A TORMENTED BROTHER.” THE BIG O FAILS TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE
The first “summary” statement provides the clearest evidence that the authors, Oregonian journalists, Noelle Crombie and Les Zaitz, in collaboration with Oregonian editors, including perhaps Bottomly herself, got the Francke murder completely and utterly all wrong.
“Summary: An investigation of the Oregon prisons chief’s shocking death 16 years ago finds no evidence to support the convicted killers alibi or the conspiracy theories still swirling around one of the states most notorious murders.”
The feature begins and ends with a surprising authority. The tone is declarative, firm and there is no room for questions or speculation. There are only assertions as to Frank Gable’s guilt, and Kevin Francke’s apparent instability as “A TORMENTED BROTHER,” who has been blinded by and made unstable by grief and sorrow.
Kevin Francke is painted in a particular light, as an unstable kook, due to the language used in the Oregonian article. His disbelief that Frank Gable killed his brother, but rather someone else who was connected to the well-known prison corruption in Salem, someone who may have wanted Michael Francke out of the picture, is deemed the pitiable response of a man struggling with his sanity.
The article is quick to point out who the Oregonian thinks the villain is, in terms of leading the reader to believe Gable is guilty, when they write: “Kevin Francke’s theories might be easily dismissed as the obsession of a grief-stricken brother if it weren’t for Phil Stanford, a former columnist with The Oregonian who now writes for the Portland Tribune.”
Why mention that Stanford used to write for the Oregonian, and now writes for the Portland Tribune? Was that truly necessary? Or was that done to put Stanford in his proverbial place? Things didn’t pan out at the Oregonian so Stanford was relegated to the next best thing, the Portland Tribune? Is that the unspoken message, existing within the subtext?
Not only does the article start out as an attack on Kevin Francke, whose brother was viciously murdered with a knife, but it also casts aspersions on the murder victim Micheal Francke himself, by focusing on his messed up life. Then later, the article transitions into another attack going after respected journalist and author Phil Stanford.
The one thing the Oregonian does get right in their “hit piece article” is when they concede that there was not a shred of physical evidence to tie Frank Gable to the 1989 crime scene.
“Skepticism dogged the case against Gable from the start. After all, no physical evidence linked Gable to the murder. Prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of ex-cons and drug addicts.”
The only purported informants who alleged to know any particulars about the 1989 murder were indeed criminals themselves with histories as sociopathic liars, degenerates and drug addicts. The kind of people who would sell their children or elderly grandmother for meth or money and could only be trusted to happily and creatively lie to whomever might give them whatever preferential treatment they could get while incarcerated. You want more candy bars? Soda? Top Ramen? Just lie to us with a false statement, and you’ll get what you want.
So, in the context that there was never a shred of evidence against Frank Gable, connecting him to the murder, the Oregonian Newspaper did get that part of the story, right, but that was the only part they got right.
VICTIM BLAMING STRAIGHT FROM THE OREGONIAN
After the summary statement, the authors begin the article with reference to the actual crime. This is a longtime writers’ trick of “hooking” the unsuspecting reader and putting them inside the most pivotal scene. Invariably this scene involves a violent interaction, something we humans are frightened of and drawn to at the same time.
But rather than indicating what may have happened or was alleged to have happened the night Francke was murdered, the article suggests declaratively, and falsely, what the Oregonian reporters decided had to have happened that night, using writing that one might find in a YA novel.
“Michael Francke stepped into the cool winter night, the pressure of another day as Oregon’s prison chief behind him, when he spotted someone rifling through the front seat of his state issued Pontiac. “Hey, what you are doing in my car?” Francke yelled, according to one witness. As Francke approached, Frank Gable, a small-time meth dealer and ex-con, swung from the driver’s side with a blade. He stabbed Francke three times, one thrust piercing his heart. Within minutes Francke bled to death.”
The issue we now understand, in 2023, is that Frank Gable was in fact not guilty of ever murdering Michael Francke in 1989, and was in fact freed June 28th, of 2019. In March of 2023, the verdict handed down by US Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta revealed that the long ordeal was finally over and the state or any court was forbidden from rearresting, re-indicting or retrying Frank Gable, ever again for the murder of Michael Franke.
“U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta ordered the Marion County murder indictment against Gable be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the state can’t bring future charges against Gable in the killing.”
Gable was framed back in 1989 for a murder he did not commit. No one, back then, in the judicial system seemed particularly interested in whether or not he was guilty or innocent. He had enough of a minor criminal record as a “small time Salem drug dealer” to be the perfect person to target for a frame-up.
Gable became a convenient victim of circumstance, though it did take over two full years for the powers that be to decide he was their man, the “patsy” who would take the fall for another man’s crime. That man was a troubled and violent longtime Meth addict named Tim Natividad, who went by the street name of Rooster. Natividad had been involved in more than his share of extreme violence, before he was finally murdered by an ex-girlfriend in a textbook case of self-defense.
Focusing on Tim Natividad in the murder investigation would have opened up a dangerous can of worms connecting the careless drug trafficking going on in the prison system in Salem. Natividad was like plastic explosives in what his history could reveal about that prison corruption, while Gable was a more convenient villain, a blank slate, with no connections to the very real prison corruption that was occurring daily.
If anything, Frank Gable was merely a tall young man, part white, part Native American, who relied on his good looks and easy charm to get through the rough patches in life. According to rumor, Frank Gable was fairly simple as men go, a smart enough man, but more of a Good Time Charlie than a brutal killer. Gable liked a good time, a little booze, and he liked to party with pretty girls. He was not unusual in that regard.
But was he a killer? No, he was not. Frank Gable Interview, here.
What makes the Oregonian hit piece on the 1989 Francke murder so reprehensible is the way the article bulldozes ahead and not only smears Frank Gable as a vicious murderer, but also smears Kevin Francke and Phil Stanford as well.
Frank Gable GoFundMe page here… please make a donation.
The article forges ahead with the force of a cannon down an empty city street, beating the reader over the head with troubling contradictions, glaring omissions, and the forceful assertions that despite there being no physical evidence to tie Frank Gable to the murder, he was guilty nonetheless.
The hit piece goes from one unsubstantiated bit of hearsay to the next, making claims that are not only inaccurate but also immoral. Perhaps most troubling is how the piece is inundated with shameless victim blaming.
Kevin Francke is a kook brother driven insane with grief, who, “…insists he is neither obsessed nor crazy,” according to the Oregonian article. Phil Stanford is a journalist obsessed with conspiracy theories that the police don’t take seriously. And then, finally, Micheal Francke, the murder victim is a man whose personal life had fallen apart, and despite an admirable work record is suddenly now incompetent, as illustrated in the Oregonian excerpt below…
“But at the time of his death, the 42-year-old Francke was a troubled man. His second marriage was unraveling. At work Francke absorbed crushing pressure. Goldscmidt had high hopes for Francke, a charming and articulate administrator from a new generation in prison management. Corrections leaders typically came from the ranks of wardens and superintendents. Francke was a University of Virginia law school graduate, former assistant attorney general and judge. But not long after Francke’s arrival, his blunders got his boss’s attention.”
So, according to the Oregonian Newspaper, Michael Francke, a highly educated, moral and even empathetic man, and the Director of Oregon Department of Corrections was also a man prone to “blunders.” The reprehensible suggestion that Francke was incompetent goes against all those who knew what a trail blazer he was, and understood how dedicated he was to helping incarcerated offenders benefit from their incarceration, while maintaining safety in Oregon prisons for employees and visitors.
Michael Francke had uncovered prison wide corruption, drug dealing, and other crime occurring in the prison. He was going to expose that prison corruption the day before he was murdered in an important presentation to lawmakers and was also planning to terminate certain employees that were engaging in all manner of illegal activity, pertaining mostly to drug trafficking.
That is why Francke was targeted and later murdered. Francke was going to blow the whistle on a lot of bad apples, but those bad apples got to him before he could expose their collective crimes.
REPORTERS ARE POLICE DETECTIVES, NOW?
To presume that two newspaper journalists could just magically solve a homicide this complex is laughable. No one understands this reality better than a police detective or someone who has studied criminology and criminal justice.
Since when are journalists homicide detectives? It matters little how many pages of evidence (90,000 pages) that journalists Noelle Crombie and Les Zaitz may have poured over, nor does it matter who they interviewed, (over 60 people) including traveling to Florida twice to “meet with” Frank Gable.
According to the 2005 article, Gable’s only contribution to the article was an alleged exclamation that the conspiracy theory was “Madness.” The passage reads: “Not even Gable, now 45, thinks much of his friends’ version of what happened that night. In his interviews with The Oregonian, Gable summed up his view of the conspiracy theory with one word: Madness.”
This portion of the article goes against everything Frank Gable has ever stated about the way he was framed for the 1989 murder of Michael Francke. Not only is this passage an example of a newspaper “spinning” statements or facts, it may in fact be an absolute fabricated lie. It goes against all reason that Frank Gable would have suggested the conspiracy theories were “Madness” when those theories were the only thing that would ultimately prove his innocence.
That passage of the Oregonian article is the truest example of what immoral yellow journalism looks like and how harmful it can be.
None of those particulars mattered one whit however, for the simple reason that Crombie and Zaitz had already decided Frank Gable was guilty and they knew what their assignment was. Their job was to prove, in the best way they could, even if that involved lying and/or spinning statements, that Frank Gable was guilty of a murder he did not commit.
They were wrong. And we all know that, now.
Frank Gable GoFundMe page, here, please make a donation.
At no point did either reporter look deeply into prison corruption, or comment on it in the article in any manner, despite prison corruption being a decades long reality that most people are well aware of. The consistent issue with prison corruption is not mentioned once in the article, nor did they entertain any other possible motives for someone wanting Michael Francke dead.
Crombie and Zaitz stuck to the official story, hoping that no one would focus on the glaring reality that there was absolutely no physical evidence tying Gable to the murder and that Frank Gable had absolutely no motive to murder Francke.
The article Noelle Crombie and Les Zaitz wrote was yellow journalism at its core.
The poorly reasoned theory that Michael Francke was murdered by a prowler just interested in stealing the worthless contents of his car was never anything more complex than an obvious red herring.
Men as successful, powerful, tall and physically imposing as Michael Francke are not generally murdered for minor reasons, like a car stereo or a briefcase lying on a back seat. But if they upset the power structure in say, a well-known den of corruption, like an old Oregon prison, known for corruption, and if they threaten to change things, and expose wrong doers, including terminating them, that is when they do sometimes wind up dead.
When someone of equal influence has something to lose, and believes their power or “darkness” can prevail, that’s when idealists like Michael Francke are targeted and murdered. Scott McAlister, known as the “Iceman: the Prince of Darkness” is believed to have been a man who hated Michael Francke to such a degree that he wanted him out of the way. Particularly, after learning Francke was going to do a “house cleaning,” which would begin with him.
With McAlister’s known ties to underworld criminals, losers, and methed-out drug addicts, it would have been easy for Scott McAlister to arrange a hit on Michael Francke. It would have been easy to arrange a hit meant to “look like a suicide.” The hard part of course, as with all premeditated acts of murder would be for it to go down as planned, without a hitch, or any mistakes.
*Because planned hits, unless carried out by an experienced hit man, almost always end up going sideways.
When will Therese Bottomly face the consequences of that 2005 hit piece article that she green-lighted, a poorly written article which smeared Frank Gable, blaming him for a vicious murder he has been exonerated from having committed? When will journalists Noelle Crombie and Les Zaitz admit they were shamelessly used and produced a laughable piece of yellow journalism that will live on in perpetuity, as yellow journalism?
When will Bottomly accept the truth of what has been uncovered in a series of myth shattering Podcasts, created by Lauren Bright Pacheo and Phil Stanford that blows the lid off the idea Gable was ever involved in the murder?
When will Bottomly acknowledge that the article was substandard, and biased from the get-go? That it was just another regurgitated effort, reinforcing systemic racism against people of color, (Frank Gable) and not an example of true, thoughtful investigative journalism in any way?
With hope, readers will see through Bottomly’s motive for the virtue signaling 2022 apology letter she issued. The letter did not come about because Bottomly feels particularly tormented about racist bigots who wrote for the Oregonian Newspaper and lived and died over 100 years ago.
The letter was business, by a shrewd editor who thought it would benefit her dying and penniless print newspaper. A newspaper which has gone from over 400 reporters and journalists to a skeleton crew of perhaps only 40 remaining writers — writers who remain consistently challenged by things like spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Knowing we live in a climate of “wokeness” that engages in tedious self-flagellation, self-loathing and “white guilt” which is generally rewarded, Bottomly knew the apology letter would be a good strategic move. She knew it would garner sympathy for her dying dinosaur newspaper, and perhaps result in a few thousand additional paying subscribers.
At least now the Oregonian has been exposed for what it represents as a newspaper, for having written a laughable, unsupported, and biased example of yellow journalism, making assertions about a particular case their journalists got completely and wholly wrong.
The question remains, if Bottomly is so invested in righting wrongs, where is the apology to Frank Gable? Where is the apology to Kevin and Patrick Francke and the rest of the Francke family? Where is the apology to the memory of Michael Francke, who was also smeared?
My belief is that Therese Bottomly will read this essay and will consciously choose to ignore it. This is what powerful, privileged white people like Therese Bottomly routinely do. With each day, week, and month of Bottomly’s practiced silence, and avoidance, she will prove to me and everyone else that she is nothing more than a shrewd businesswoman desperately trying to hang on and avoid the almost certain death of the Oregonian Newspaper.
Don’t fall for it Portland. Don’t fall for the lies. You’re smarter than that.
Authors Note: Oregonian editor, Therese Bottomly, and Oregonian journalists Noelle Crombie and Les Zaitz hurt a lot of people with their sloppy 2005 hit piece on Frank Gable. They owe, individually and collectively, a public apology to Mr. Frank Gable, a man who was once 27, but had more than 30 years of his life stolen from him.
They owe an apology, individually and collectively, to the memory of Michael Francke, to brothers Kevin and Patrick Francke and to journalist Phil Stanford, who more than anyone else kept this story alive and the narrative going forward.
The truest reality is that the one person most responsible for Frank Gable being freed in 2019 and fully exonerated in March of 2023 by Judge John V. Acosta, is in fact journalist and author, Phil Stanford.
The Oregonian Newspaper and all those responsible for the deplorable 2005 hit piece, owe all of these people a public apology.
And they know it.
~Theresa Griffin Kennedy
Brilliant analysis. The O and the B that is the editor need to get down on their knees and beg forgiveness.