A new way to spark reader interest: Distribute a DVD that PO’s subscribers.
BY KATIE GILBERT
On Broadway: About 75 protesters marched Monday outside The Oregonian offices at 1320 SW Broadway to protest its distribution of a DVD, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.
IMAGE: Katie Gilbert
In a very busy news week—from the first presidential debate to Wall Street’s meltdown—The Oregonian made its own headlines by inserting a DVD in its Sunday editions that managed to tick off local Muslims, Christians and Jews, as well as non-believers.
The target of their anger, this week’s Rogue—publisher Fred Stickel and his decision to accept the paid insert from the New York-based Clarion Fund, which produced the hourlong film, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. They said the film (see review, this page) incited fear of Muslims by assuming an educational tone while airily linking Islam to terrorist organizations.
“It is the moral obligation of a newspaper to inform, not to misinform,” United Methodist minister Rev. Chuck Cooper said to applause from about 75 demonstrators protesting Monday outside the daily’s downtown office. “The Oregonian gets a well-deserved F for citizenship.”