Former Gov. John Kitzhaber breaks his silence

Former Gov. John Kitzhaber ended nearly eight months of silence this week to criticize Portland-based media outlets for creating a frenzied atmosphere of falsehoods that ended with his resigning his unprecedented fourth term in mid-February.

Kitzhaber, in a statement issued to the Statesman Journal, said he has always believed in a robust freedom of speech and the critical role of journalists to inform the populace about current events and issues decided by government.

But he said that Sept. 9 and Sept. 13 admissions by The Oregonian newspaper that it had run “an untrue news story that put me and my administration in a false light” have compelled him to speak publicly for the first time since his resignation to “weigh in on the discussion.”

On Sept. 9, the Statesman Journal ran a story detailing how it took The Oregonian nearly five months to run print and online corrections to two front-page stories it published in early April. The stories, by Oregonian reporters Laura Gunderson and Nick Budnick, were written off of 94,000 emails released by the state following public-records requests by The Oregonian and others.

The paper’s watchdog stories published April 5, and again April 8, assert that Kitzhaber was active “in clearing the way for fiancée Cylvia Hayes” to be more than just nominally involved in his administration while she was working as a paid consultant to outside interests and that Hayes “behaved as if she were a deputy governor with staff and aides.”

But in corrections printed on Page 2A of the Sept. 9 and13 editions of The Oregonian, five months later, the paper acknowledged errors in those stories, which had helped shape the conversation at the time the governor resigned. The corrections were also published on The Oregonian’s OregonLive website, but they weren’t identified as corrections until after readers clicked on a headline hyperlink.

Kitzhaber was succinct in his written words.

“Although I was not contacted concerning the retraction, the admission by The Oregonian that it knowingly and materially altered a public document and inserted false information into a direct quote to support a predetermined narrative exposes a troubling pattern, which includes both factual errors and the selective mischaracterization of public records,” Kitzhaber wrote.

The Oregonian, in its corrections, did not admit to having a “predetermined narrative.”

“After reviewing tens of thousands of my emails,” Kitzhaber said, “The Oregonian has resorted to inaccurate and misleading stories to keep its narrative alive. This raises questions about the standards of accuracy and journalistic ethics that guide its reporting and deserves further scrutiny.”

Kitzhaber acknowledged the scrutiny his former administration faced by the press and law enforcement agencies earlier this year and said that regardless of how he felt about the accuracy of specific news reports, he had chosen to remain out of the public eye to allow the process to take its course, confident that the outcome would be positive for his administration and himself.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Oregon in Portland declined to comment on the status of the federal investigation into Kitzhaber and Hayes, saying only that “the office makes no comment on pending investigations.” Sunday, Oct. 18, will mark eight months since Kitzhaber resigned.

Five months after The Oregonian’s April articles, the newspaper’s corrections noted that public policy consultant Steve Bella and his group, the Center for State Innovation, “never helped arrange a position for Hayes with the Rural Development Initiatives group” despite assertions and “takeaways” to the contrary that ran in the articles.

The paper’s correction also stated that the stories had incorrectly inserted the words “Columbia River Crossing” into the email quotes parenthetically and that Bella had done no work on the Columbia River Crossing. Both corrections concluded with the line that The Oregonian/OregonLive regretted publication of the errors.

The print and online corrections were part of a settlement reached by Bella through his attorney, Charles Williamson, Bella said.

Mark Katches, editor and vice president of content for The Oregonian, said the paper “was not going to have any comment” on the former governor’s remarks.

Kitzhaber’s attorney, Janet Hoffman, of Janet Hoffman & Associates LLC in Portland, said The Oregonian’s errors are only the beginning of troubling patterns being practiced by some news outlets.

She said her office hand-delivered two demands for the retraction of statements pertaining to Kitzhaber that were published in Willamette Week, an alternative weekly newspaper and website, on April 21 and June 9. Both stories were written by reporter Nigel Jaquiss.

Hoffman said Willamette Week first published a story Feb. 12, the day before Kitzhaber announced his resignation, that said the governor sought to destroy thousands of his emails. She said that it was an improper inference that had no basis in fact and that the weekly persisted in the mischaracterization in subsequent stories. She demanded that Willamette Week retract its false statements.

She said Willamette Week responded to her demands for retractions with emails that said the newspaper did “not intend to issue a retraction.” Last week, there was little trace of the Willamette Week Feb. 12 story headlined “Gov. John Kitzhaber’s Office Sought to Destroy Thousands of His Emails.

Mark Zusman, editor and publisher of Willamette Week explained the missing story by saying that the newspaper had recently switched content management systems, and there was some corruption of data during the migration. He said, and the Statesman Journal confirmed, that the story has now been restored online.

He also said Willamette Week is not retracting its story because “it is accurate.” He said Hoffman is planning a lawsuit and the first step is to demand a retraction.

Hoffman points to several documents published recently that support the Kitzhaber’s contention that media outlets had preconceived narratives and continued to publish stories with those conclusions even as evidence to the contrary surfaced.

The Oregon State Police on Feb. 18, the day Kitzhaber officially resigned, opened Incident No. SP15051571 to investigate possible unauthorized access and dissemination of state emails belonging to an executive branch member of the Oregon state government. The more than 1,500-page investigation details myriad interviews conducted by the state police’s major crimes office, criminal investigators, public-safety service officers, computer experts and detectives.

It contained detailed interviews, a copied collection of user access logs, detailed timelines, association charts, cellphone screen shots, a master names and phone-numbers list, and email logs.

It was this report that Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau and Yamhill County District Attorney Brad Berry cited in their announcement June 3 regarding possible prosecution of Michael Rodgers, the former Department of Administrative Services employee who admitted to leaking the public and private Kitzhaber emails to Willamette Week.

Beglau and Berry, in reviewing the state police report, concluded that Rodgers, instead of delivering all of the emails that were on two thumb drives to Matt Shelby, copied them on his own thumb drive, or portable storage device, out of fear that the emails would be destroyed. Shelby is the communications strategist in the Chief Operating Office of DAS.

The state police investigation concludes that Rodgers should have known, in his position as acting administrator for the technology arm of DAS, that the system had a backup and a backup to the backup.

The two DAs said in their opinion, after assessing the facts in the investigation, that they believed Rodgers could be prosecuted for violating the law because he should have known that the emails were backed up on redundant state servers, and contrary to his claim, could not be destroyed. They said he could be prosecuted for a Class C misdemeanor crime of official misconduct in the second degree, which is punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail and a $1,250 fine for each violation.

The two DAs concluded that justice would not be served by filing criminal charges against Rodgers.

And, on June 5, the Department of Justice General Counsel Division issued an executive summary of investigation that concluded Rodgers never received any directive from Michael Jordan, the then DAS chief operating officer, or anyone else from DAS, ordering him to delete all emails from the governor’s personal email accounts.

Despite the collection of findings, Gov. Kate Brown declined to pursue charges against Rodgers, telling Willamette Week for an article dated June 3 that “it was something he (Rodgers) did based on the lack of trust in the system around him” and that “his intentions were good.”

Last week Rodgers agreed to resign from his state job in exchange for two years’ salary ($286,200), his health insurance paid through the end of the year, payment for 300 hours of accumulated vacation time and his attorney’s expenses, which amount to $12,158. The settlement was reached after Rodgers notified the state that he intended to sue for “investigations without proper notice and an opportunity for a hearing” as well as “published reports containing false and stigmatizing statements” about his being placed on leave Feb. 20. He also agreed, by signing the document, that neither he or his agents would make disparaging public statements to news media outlets.

Zusman, the Willamette Week editor, said the paper stands by its stories.

“We’re comfortable in its accuracy,” he said, adding that it was logical for Rodgers to fear for the security of the back-up and the back-up to the back-up with Kitzhaber in charge.

Meanwhile, the state, via Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum — the wife of Richard Meeker, who was publisher of Willamette Week until June — filed a motion Sept. 16 in Marion County Circuit Court concerning its possession of the former governor’s personal emails.

Since the state did not have Kitzhaber’s permission to take the personal emails, Rosenblum says in the discovery motion, “DAS never should have had access to his personal email account” and consequently “DAS does not legitimately possess Governor Kitzhaber’s personal emails.”

These competing interests leave the state in a precarious position. In its motion, the state said there is “good cause” to enter an order establishing whether and under what conditions the plaintiffs (the state) should review and produce emails from the former governor’s private Gmail account.

“In the absence of the court’s guidance,” the motion states, “plaintiffs will face either legal action from former Gov. Kitzhaber or a motion to compel from Oracle.”

Kitzhaber, in his statement, said suing the state is not a priority for him.

“I did not sue the state of Oregon because I gave 35 years of my life to the institution. I love Oregon, and its government, and would not feel right about suing the state for damages after those many years of service.”

ccurrie@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6746, or follow on Twitter at @CATMCurrie

Read More:

Kitzhaber breaks his silence: Speaking for the first time in eight months, former governor takes on Portland media.

Sticking to the story: Kitzhaber's attorney twice demanded a retraction by Willamette Week but was rebuffed.

The email leaker: The state worker who leaked Kitzhaber's emails has resigned as part of a settlement.

Commentary: The destructive power of one word clobbered Kitzhaber.

Timeline: A look at key dates and events in the Kitzhaber story.

Key Players: A look at the people who played a key role in the Kitzhaber story.