Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State
Oregon entered a new era in 1964 with the election of Tom McCall as Secretary of State and Bob Straub as State Treasurer.  Their political rivalry formed the backdrop for two of Oregon’s most transformative decades, as they successively fought for, lost, and won the governorship. Veteran Oregon journalist Floyd McKay had a front-row seat.
 
As a political reporter for The Oregon Statesman in Salem, and then as news analyst for KGW-TV in Portland, McKay was known for asking tough questions and pulling no punches. His reporting and commentaries ranged from analysis of the “Tom and Bob” rivalry, to the Vietnam War’s impact on Senators Wayne Morse and Mark Hatfield and the emergence of a new generation of Portland activists in the 1970s.
 
McKay and his colleagues were on the beaches as Oregon crafted its landmark Beach Bill, ensuring the protection of beaches for public use. They watched as activists turned back efforts to build a highway on the sand at Pacific City. Pitched battles over Oregon’s Bottle Bill, and the panic-inducing excitement of “Vortex”—the nation’s only state-sponsored rock festival—characterized the period. Covering the period from 1964-1986, McKay remembers the action, the players and the consequences, in this compelling and personal account.
 
As major actors fade from the scene and new leaders emerge, McKay casts a backwards glance at enduring Oregon legends. Half a century later, amid today’s cynicism and disillusionment with media, politics, and politicians, Reporting the Oregon Story serves as a timely reminder that charged politics and bitter rivalries can also come hand-in-hand with lasting social progress.
 
Reporting the Oregon Story will be relished by those who lived the history, and it will serve as a worthy introduction to Oregonians young and old who want a first-hand account of Oregon’s mid- twentieth-century political history and legislative legacy.
1122935426
Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State
Oregon entered a new era in 1964 with the election of Tom McCall as Secretary of State and Bob Straub as State Treasurer.  Their political rivalry formed the backdrop for two of Oregon’s most transformative decades, as they successively fought for, lost, and won the governorship. Veteran Oregon journalist Floyd McKay had a front-row seat.
 
As a political reporter for The Oregon Statesman in Salem, and then as news analyst for KGW-TV in Portland, McKay was known for asking tough questions and pulling no punches. His reporting and commentaries ranged from analysis of the “Tom and Bob” rivalry, to the Vietnam War’s impact on Senators Wayne Morse and Mark Hatfield and the emergence of a new generation of Portland activists in the 1970s.
 
McKay and his colleagues were on the beaches as Oregon crafted its landmark Beach Bill, ensuring the protection of beaches for public use. They watched as activists turned back efforts to build a highway on the sand at Pacific City. Pitched battles over Oregon’s Bottle Bill, and the panic-inducing excitement of “Vortex”—the nation’s only state-sponsored rock festival—characterized the period. Covering the period from 1964-1986, McKay remembers the action, the players and the consequences, in this compelling and personal account.
 
As major actors fade from the scene and new leaders emerge, McKay casts a backwards glance at enduring Oregon legends. Half a century later, amid today’s cynicism and disillusionment with media, politics, and politicians, Reporting the Oregon Story serves as a timely reminder that charged politics and bitter rivalries can also come hand-in-hand with lasting social progress.
 
Reporting the Oregon Story will be relished by those who lived the history, and it will serve as a worthy introduction to Oregonians young and old who want a first-hand account of Oregon’s mid- twentieth-century political history and legislative legacy.
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Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State

Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State

by Floyd J. McKay
Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State

Reporting the Oregon Story: How Activists and Visionaries Transformed a State

by Floyd J. McKay

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Overview

Oregon entered a new era in 1964 with the election of Tom McCall as Secretary of State and Bob Straub as State Treasurer.  Their political rivalry formed the backdrop for two of Oregon’s most transformative decades, as they successively fought for, lost, and won the governorship. Veteran Oregon journalist Floyd McKay had a front-row seat.
 
As a political reporter for The Oregon Statesman in Salem, and then as news analyst for KGW-TV in Portland, McKay was known for asking tough questions and pulling no punches. His reporting and commentaries ranged from analysis of the “Tom and Bob” rivalry, to the Vietnam War’s impact on Senators Wayne Morse and Mark Hatfield and the emergence of a new generation of Portland activists in the 1970s.
 
McKay and his colleagues were on the beaches as Oregon crafted its landmark Beach Bill, ensuring the protection of beaches for public use. They watched as activists turned back efforts to build a highway on the sand at Pacific City. Pitched battles over Oregon’s Bottle Bill, and the panic-inducing excitement of “Vortex”—the nation’s only state-sponsored rock festival—characterized the period. Covering the period from 1964-1986, McKay remembers the action, the players and the consequences, in this compelling and personal account.
 
As major actors fade from the scene and new leaders emerge, McKay casts a backwards glance at enduring Oregon legends. Half a century later, amid today’s cynicism and disillusionment with media, politics, and politicians, Reporting the Oregon Story serves as a timely reminder that charged politics and bitter rivalries can also come hand-in-hand with lasting social progress.
 
Reporting the Oregon Story will be relished by those who lived the history, and it will serve as a worthy introduction to Oregonians young and old who want a first-hand account of Oregon’s mid- twentieth-century political history and legislative legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780870718465
Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Publication date: 04/01/2016
Edition description: 1
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range: 3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Floyd McKay was a leading journalist at The Oregon Statesman in Salem, and as news analyst at KGW-TV in Portland. For his work as a reporter and producer of documentaries, he won the DuPont-Columbia Broadcast Award, the “Pulitzer Prize of Broadcasting.” He holds a PhD in Media History from the University of Washington. He was a Nieman Fellow in journalism at Harvard University and taught journalism at Western Washington University. McKay lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Introduction 1

Profile: Team Neuberger 11

1 Television's Favorite Son 14

Profile: That Old Gang of Tom's 35

2 Saving the Rivers and Beaches 38

Profile: Janet McLennan's Activism 58

3 Mark Goes Rogue: Vietnam in Oregon 61

Profile: Bob Duncan: More Than a Hawk 80

4 Tumult in 1968: The Year of Change 83

5 Sitting in Tom's Chair 107

6 Red Hat to Vortex: the Reinvention of Tom McCall 128

Profile: The Odd Couple: Ron Schmidt and Ed Westerdahl 144

7 People for… Friends of… 147

Profile: Vera Katz: From Brooklyn with Love 164

8 Saving the Land 167

Profile: The Remarkable L. B. Day 183

Profile: Freshman Chutzpah: Don Stathos and Walt Brown 185

9 Holding on in Changing Times 188

Profile: Nancy Russell: Steel in a Velvet Glove 211

10 Becoming Portlandia 213

Profile: Timber Jim and the Redhead 237

11 The Legacy 239

Afterword 245

Acknowledgments 251

Notes 253

Additional Readings and Viewings 259

Index 263

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