Craigslist of DOOM!

Today's Portland Tribune has a big-scarum front-page story about the "dangers" of Craigslist...rather hysterically titled "Craigslist or Crimeslist?: Popular online classifieds home to thieves, con artists, prostitution."

It begins:

In Tigard, a man allegedly invites women to his house and sexually assaults them.

In Portland, newlyweds discover that their minister allegedly stole their wedding gifts.

In Beaverton, police find a prostitution ring operating in a local motel.

And in Gresham, a couple steals and resells utility trailers for years.

All of these accused or convicted criminals have one thing in common – they committed their crimes with the help of Craigslist (www.craigslist.org), the wildly popular Web site for buying and selling property and services, as well as finding a job, a roommate or a date.

That Craig and his list -- scary!

But not a word in the entire story about the fact that Craigslist, with its model of online free classified ads, is a direct competitor for ad bucks that might otherwise go to traditional papers like, say, the Trib. (Fortunately, most of the commentors on the story point out this remarkable omission.)

I found this all particularly funny because I had an interview with the Tribune when I first moved to Portland; I answered an ad, and a very nice woman named Connie Pickett phoned me. We couldn't come to terms, but I appreciated the paper's interest and Ms. Pickett couldn't have been nicer.

Anyway -- the ad I'd answered?

The Trib had put it on Craigslist.

Comments

[Chris]

The Trib had put it on Craigslist.

Now that's irony!

[metroknow]

I have to say that I don't know if either 1) Portland is inordinately filled with hardened crazed thieving criminals who have computers, or 2) people just talk about shady ministers, would-be car thieves, and stolen trailers more, but in any city I've been in I've never heard more fear-mongering over Craigslist. For all of the holier-than-thou attitudes many folks in PDX often have about how much safer/better it is here than anywhere else (never leave the state, or face the consequences), in 5 years of daily (hell, hourly) Craigslist addiction in L.A. I rarely heard about Craigslist being the not-so-secret den of thieves and would-be murderers. Since moving here, I have heard at least 6 stories of the danger of that Craig guy (who, don't you know, is from San Francisco. Which explains everything) and his, evil wicked list. He and his coven are obviously the true Fru-it...of the Dev-eel.

But then again, in larger cities, in my opinion folks are inclined to use a little more common sense when dealing with strangers and money, so maybe that's the difference.

Dunno.

Of course, in L.A. (as here) there were a lot of really stupid things advertised (my favorite being potheads who seem to think cops don't know what 420 wink wink nudge nudge means), but I don't recall hearing so much fearful chatter about it.

Maybe Craig should do an expose on the personal ads in print media like the Stranger or the Mercury, because lord knows prostitution and thievin' doesn't happen there. Think any cars or trucks that are sold in the Penny Saver or the AutoTrader are less than legit? Huh. I wonder.

Bottom line: Maybe the dia-Trib should just grow a pair and rename the article, "P-town: home to thieves, con artists, prostitution," and just get the insult over with.

C'mon local news. Can't we all just get a *real* story?

[Ben Waterhouse]

Thank goodness hookers, scam artists, fences and other assorted frauds have never advertised in a newspaper's classifieds!

Oh, right. I forgot: http://www.oregonlive.com/fraud_prevention/

[Lizzy Caston]

I'm an avid CL user. My truck, my guest bedroom mattress, my last two boyfriends (one of whom is still a dear friend), my apartment in Paris, friends in Paris, a terrific 30 euro a night room in an apartment in Barcelona, etc, etc... Also, I probably would have had a lot less sex and and a lot less fodder for a novel I'm working on in the past two years if it wasn't for CL. Have I ever been ripped off? A couple of mediocre dates for sure, but no, CL is no different than the "real" world - you gots to use your street smarts peoples on the internets and elsewheres.

Not to blame any CL victims, for I don't know their specific circumstances, but yes common sense and self responsibility has a lot to do with it.

And my gut tells me that the media hysteria surrounding CL in Portland is about Portland's schizo feelings about urbanism in general and Oregon's cultural divide between urban and rural. I mean, are we a small town Mayberry everyone knows everyone else kind of place, or are we a big city where evil lurks around every corner?

And the media in Portland love a good scare story, y'all know that by now. From feral pitbulls running rampant, to tweaking Meth heads, to child molesters living near schools the CL freakout is the next obvious conclusion for media too lazy to bother to do any real journalism.

Is there a seamy underbelly in Portland? Sure. There is one everywhere. CL just makes it that much more obvious and immediate and makes it harder to sweep into the muddy current of that big river in Portland that so many swim in on a daily basis - Denial.