Extremists from the political left and right clash in front of a convenience store on August 22 in Portland, Oregon.

Photo: mathieu lewis-rolland/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

For any readers thinking they had a tough week of frustrating Zoom calls, imagine having to sell Portland, Ore., Mayor Ted Wheeler’s message of tolerance for violent anarchy. Talk about crisis communications. Some intolerable events simply cannot be spun, even by the most talented of message massagers.

Shane Dixon Kavanaugh reports for The Oregonian:

Lennox Wiseley, a reality television producer who joined Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office as communications director late last month, has left City Hall after only one week on the job.
Wiseley, whose TV credits include “Little People, Big World,” “The Millionaire Matchmaker” and “The Great Food Truck Race,” started her new gig Aug. 23 with a salary of $110,000, according to the mayor’s office. Her last day was Aug. 30.

Perhaps the staid world of reality television didn’t prepare the accomplished Ms. Wiseley for the madcap antics of an urban mayor who appears indifferent to the issue of public safety.

Mr. Kavanaugh reports:

Her first day began less than 24 hours after a sprawling, bloody street brawl between far-right activists and self-described anti-fascist protesters erupted in Northeast Portland’s racially diverse Parkrose neighborhood while police watched from a distance and did not intervene.
The mayor immediately took heat for his statement, issued her first day on the job, gloating about the success of his “choose love” event ahead of the melee and claiming that, as a result, “The community at large was not harmed.”

A recent Journal editorial summed up the mayor’s appalling message to his community: Anarchy is tolerable as long as you’re merely shooting at each other.

Readers wondering how one could possibly defend Mr. Wheeler’s reaction to the violence in his city may have something in common with the mayor’s staff. The Oregonian notes that Ms. Wiseley’s departure “marks the third communications director to depart the mayor’s office in the last year. Wheeler’s office has also seen an unusually high turnover among other staff.” At least one senior aide left the mayor’s office in the spring to take a job at the endlessly fascinating Multnomah County Drainage District.

As for the latest Wheeler aide to head for the exit, the mayor’s abdication of his basic responsibility to protect public safety was not the only communications challenge. Sergio Olmos and Mike Baker of the New York Times recently reported on new mask mandates imposed by Gov. Kate Brown (D., Ore.) According to the Timesmen:

In the state’s largest city, Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, was among those to embrace new mandates on face coverings this month when Ms. Brown required them for indoor activities, including for those who are vaccinated. “Please join me in making a commitment to protect those around us by wearing a mask at all times while indoors,” Mr. Wheeler urged on Twitter.
But, a week later, on Aug. 20, Mr. Wheeler gathered with others in the eighth-floor lounge of a downtown hotel, joining a send-off party for a departing staff member. Photos obtained by The New York Times show him sitting with about a dozen people — almost all unmasked — testing the limits of the strict new mask rules.
Lennox Wiseley, a spokeswoman for Mr. Wheeler, said the mayor and his staff were complying with the rules because they were “actively eating and/or drinking” — the state standard at which people can remove their masks indoors.

Saying goodbye to departing staff members has lately been taking up so much of the mayor’s time that perhaps he’s had little time to consider the particulars of the rules he wishes to impose on others—rules that he is also supposed to observe while bidding his staffers adieu. The Times account suggests there are differing opinions on whether Mr. Wheeler is following the letter of the diktats:

Ken Stedman, a biology professor at Portland State University who studies viruses, said that while Wheeler’s group seemed to be spaced apart, he had some concern about the gathering.
“I would prefer to see more masks on,” Stedman said.
Ken Henson, who co-owns Pelican Brewing, which has locations along the Oregon coast, said the strictest interpretation of the rules was that people should wear masks and pull them down only to take a bite of food or a sip of a drink. But, in practice, he said, his restaurants allow customers to remove their masks once their food or drinks are in front of them.
Even among people who have been generally compliant, he said, some customers are growing wary and unwilling to stay on board.
“The underlying tension is people are just tired,” Henson said.

Who can blame them? For more than a year Portland’s mayor has been asking citizens to accept both limits on their liberty and threats to their safety. Perhaps his staff is just tired of defending him.

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James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”

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(Teresa Vozzo helps compile Best of the Web. Thanks to Kathy Clock.)

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