It's no surprise when a newspaper subverts the news to entertainment or titilation in order to sell papers. It's an ancient truism: If it bleeds, it leads. The same is true of their online editions, of course, but the opportunity to present a wider variety of hooks means an even greater opportunity to produce content that is reprehensible and unworthy of a decent publication.

The Oregonian would like to pretend it's above such publication gimmicks, but they lack the shame necessary to remain unsullied. The current (Monday, July 21, 7 pm) online edition features this lovely image:

The "Criminal of the Week" — and for some reason, of the four choices, this nominee happens to have dark skin. However, since he's not of African descent — he is Indian — apparently the Big O feels comfortable in using his image in such a negative context.

He is, for those who follow the seamier side of the news, not unknown. He is " 'Dr. Death' Jayant Patel - Former Portland surgeon transferred to custody of Australian authorities where he awaits trial for three counts of manslaughter in the deaths of patients under his care." I am sure the paper would argue his arrest and extradition are newsworthy, and I won't argue that point. It's a stupid definition of "news" but it is what people pay to read and watch, so it gets covered as if it matters to a damn person in Portland.

And yet is there a need to associate a person of color with the word "criminal"? Why not one of the other "nominees"? Why not the crazy bike guy? For that matter, why any poll on this at all? So a few peabrains with nothing better to do with thrity seconds of their life can let us know who they think is the baddest of the week's bad guys? Why would anyone give a damn about such a thing?

No, I doubt very much the Oregonian really wants to know who readers most revile this week. They just want to grab eyeballs and hope they'll stay on the page a bit longer and perhaps click to one or two other pages. With extraordinary luck, some of those browsers might even choose to click an ad. Because what's going on on the website has nothing to do with news or opinion; it's about making money. The longer people stay on the website, the more links they click, the more pages they visit — the more money the Oregonian can make. The can sell more ads, and they can charge more for those ads.

So Dr Patel is irrelevant as a criminal. He matters because his face will grab and hold on to viewers a bit longer. Some, like me, will wonder who the hell he is, and stupidly endorse the O's project by clicking on the link (I wanted to know who they were using for racist purposes, so I didn't have a lot of choice). A nice, boring white person — boring to the majority of readers who will be as white as the city and state are — just doesn't grab attention the way a nice scary dark-skinned person does.

Or a woman with big tits.