Remember when Jason invited me to fact-check Frontline‘s ass? Turns out we don’t need an anthill to do it. We just need to link to some old media online. The Willamette Week took on The Oregonian‘s series that Frontline repeated, and the bottom line?

In its effort to convince the world of the threats posed by meth, The Oregonian has sacrificed accuracy. According to an analysis of the paper’s reporting, a review of drug-use data and conversations with addiction experts, The Oregonian has relied on bad statistics and a rhetoric of crisis, ultimately misleading its readers into believing they face a far greater scourge than the facts support.

Check out the unverified statistics with no source, the misuse of data, and omissions of facts that would severely undercut the theme of crisis engendered by The Oregonian.

To reply with my own sentence in a style fit for The Oregonian: One reporter in one local paper may have single-handedly diverted national drug policy down a blind alley, leaving real victims suffering in silence.