In Part 13 of the ongoing drama over Portland Mayor Sam Adams, the Mayor accused KATU-2 TV News of baiting Portland-area Legislators against him. KATU-2 went back to the four lawmakers interviewed and found that the lawmakers said that no baiting or misrepresentation was used.
Here is what KATU had to say:KATU was concerned the senators thought we took their comments out of context or perhaps the mayor was distorting what they said, so we went back to them to make sure our report was accurate.
“I felt like I was accurately portrayed in the story,” said Burdick, who added that our questions were “provocative.”
Carter sent an e-mail to the mayor saying “I was concerned to hear yesterday from Dan Tilkin that you quoted me as saying he had “baited” me…” “That is not accurate. He did not bait me, nor have I ever said, to you or to anyone else, that he did.”
Adams’ response to that e-mail was “thank you for the clarification” but there was no further explanation.
On Thursday, another KATU reporter asked Adams’ spokesman, Roy Kaufman, whether the mayor stood by what he said, despite what Carter told him in the e-mail.
“Again, I wasn’t present for the conversation but my understanding is they had a sincere conversation and how he responded to Dan Tilkin was based on the conversation he had,” said Kaufman.
Following our investigation into Adams’ credibility problem at the state capitol, the mayor called all four senators and even apologized to Hass for dropping the ball on a piece of city legislation and for putting the senator in an awkward position.