Retraction: The Southwestern Company - Part 1: Corporate Mafia

(EUGENE, Ore.) - Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, Oregon attorneys representing The Southwestern Company have contacted Salem-News.com to threaten legal action in response to Part 1 of our series on The Southwestern Company.

So far, only the first part of the article has been published, so these legal threats are in no way based on the substance of the allegations made in the series (which have as yet not been made).

Apparently, The Southwestern Company is offended by the general tone of the first article.

After reviewing the letter, Salem-News.com has come to the conclusion that the use of the term “Mafia” in the article could be misconstrued. Some readers might make an unfair and prejudiced association between The Southwestern Company and Italians or Italian-Americans.

In order to clarify the article, and remove any references that might be interpreted as casting aspersions upon Italians and Italian Americans, we are retracting the article.

We sincerely apologize for any insult we may have inadvertently made to the honor or character of the Italian people and the many fine Americans of Italian ancestry in this country.

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am October 21, 2013 9:39 am (Pacific time)

Before reading this, I want to say Spencer Hays is a very nice man. I don't really believe in most of what this article says. But this is my experience at ATHLON SPORTS, a company owned by Spencer, which operates out of the same building. you want a fact about southwestern. I worked for Athlon Sports and was made fun of because I used to have cancer, by an illiterate racist moron who used to make fun of me because I used words he had never known before. I will say this about Spencer Hays..he's a very nice man. If only I would of complained to him, instead of Bryce Wells, I wouldn't of been fired and escorted out so that I wouldn't tell anyone else I was being fired for complaining about racism. For a year and a half, I put up with this daily pack mentality of let's make fun of the foreigner because we're insecure about our own lives. I never knew how someone could actually want to kill themselves, until I looked out into the ground below while walking back to my office..and stood there for 5 minutes and gave some serious thought to ending it. After all, these were people who MADE FUN OF ME BECAUSE I USED TO HAVE CANCER. They had these evil smirks and would take joy in my pain. I know this sounds hard to believe, but it's all true. WORKING AT ATHLON SPORTS WAS THE MOST AWFUL EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE AND I WOULD NOT WISH IT ON MY WORST ENEMY. Riley Hamilton, an illiterate hill billy, and Michael Mccracken an insecure geek who just joined in on the fun and told me I was delusional and that everyone liked me, made my life a living hell on a daily basis, for their own entertainment. And I will never forgive or forget this,and am TRAUMATIZED still to this day.

Kevin August 6, 2012 10:27 pm (Pacific time)

ahahahahahah love you guys :)) very nice apologizes

Anonymous February 26, 2010 5:46 pm (Pacific time)

Wow, cutting-edge mediocrity! Kinda like Air America but at a much smaller scale and much more unprofessional. So how did your other internet experiments go? You are never going to do very well, you have a damaged brand, and will never recover. Too many different entities have been smeared by you. There is a cost in that.

Editor: No, SW Company, there is no law against exposing the truth and no associated liability. This company would have to take us to court and if they chose to do that, it would further reveal the findings revealed in this series of articles. Since the material is truthful, it would only be interesting to us and a great opportunity. Air America was a great attempt to bring honesty to people, I especially liked Mike Malloy. You guys have gotten away with a lot, but you are truly dealing with free press here, a group of military veterans and war correspondents and professors and world class reporters. Your blustery words do not scare us, we only print the truth, our job is educating the American public.

Anonymous February 26, 2010 12:41 pm (Pacific time)

Henry Ruark I wasn't sure if you had ever been a member of any state bar? I would not be surprised, though I didn't see a reference to law school in your bio. Have you ever litigated a case in court dealing with this type of issue? You are a writer who possesses information the average person doesn't, seriously, you really have a subtle and intellectual way of giving it to those fat ass white republicans who only live to stuff their faces with greed and let the legions of poor Americans they trample drip down the sides of their cheeks. The only misinformer on this site is the occasional nazi like neocon who you guys for some reason allow to post, can't understand that but then you guys are fair. I also like to follow the work of Tim King, in combat or here in Oregon, that is one guy who has guts.. One thing is for sure, this site is one that won't fade away any timte soon, Thanks

Hank Ruark February 25, 2010 9:51 am (Pacific time)

To all, including company law firm:

60 years of editing and reporting experience, some in Chicago, surely HQ for most of crime syndicate action-then, allows me to speak to point here.

Term "mafia" when used with lower-case first-letter, is only and simply a single-word reference summarizing a very generally understood kind of organization.

In my long experience, that term lower/cased has long been properly and professionally used precisely as it was in Ersun's solid report.

Opinion-published surely does allow use of it in that sense --which is how it was used in report published here.
Many-party testimony to that effect would be easy to access if court-action demands it.

Having been both personally and professionally in the identical position by similar published statement (re strong violation of copyright by city av centers stealing product sent for review prior to purchase) it is obvious this is simple fear-provoker, used as common first-step by some law cabals...

That term --cabal-- may prove offensive to some, and I hope it includes these legal eagles so eager to flap their wings re honest, open, fully checkable reports in this S-N channel devoted to open,honest and democratic exploration of solid, real democratic issues, one surely being what Ersun is reporting in this series.

Any lawyer is simply paid warrior devoting life to whom will pad wallet with more moola...in effect selling self for whatever the market will provide. That's reality of commercial life under our capitalistic system...

This written simply to set proper frame for legal-eagle wing-flapping..or should that read lip-flapping ??
Honest reporting deserves full support and entirely open provision for publication in reputed free press, under the First Amendment.

P.S.: In copyright-case mentioned, legal and court reviews led to change in the copyright law clarifying and supporting "our side" --with full exposure of illegal acts by city centers involving many thousands of dollars-then.
You can check in magazine coverage I edited, where full documentation is available.