Whenever I went over to my father’s house, particularly on a Saturday or Sunday morning as he was reading the Oregonian, I could count on dad saying, “Just going through the obituaries to make sure I am not there”. That was as much a part of Dad as being a dentist for 50 years.
When dad passed away, I was looking forward to placing his obituary in the Oregonian, if only to honor that little joke he so enjoyed repeating. I used a picture of both mom and dad and added a small paragraph about them, survived by; the usual stuff you see in in obituaries. Thankfully, the funeral home we used came back to me before they posted the obituary to inform us that the Oregonian newspaper had just raised its rates and wanted $950 to print what was a column wide and about five inches tall.
Needless to say, we did not spend the money.
I am sure that dad was looking forward to having the people that knew him and especially me to read the obituary, not because he died, but because he lived. The Oregonian had been part of his entire life and had been a service to the State of Oregon. I am also sure that he would not have approved of spending that amount of money. That amount of money was as insulting as much as it was disappointing.
The Oregonian is a business and needs to make a profit. Everybody understands that. But to see something that is a part of this State, even an institution of this State, lower itself to profiting off of the death of the citizens of the State of Oregon is also insulting and disappointing.
The Oregonian has become nothing more than a business that profits from death, bad news, and sensational lies. I do not read the Oregonian any longer as it has become nothing more than a tabloid. The trust is gone, the truth is gone, and my interest in finding out what else is going on in the rest of Oregon from the Oregonian is gone.