The Oregonian’s investigative reporting reminds me of a punch-drunk boxer on the ropes. He’s ready to collapse under the weight of his own head, yet still flails wildly, hoping against hope that he’ll land a lucky punch.

Consider these recent rounds:

PDC Burnside Bridge fiasco/PR consultant meltdown: b!X had the story (and provided a ringside seat in the comments, no less), followed closely by WWeek, and then eventually, The O.

PDC consultant fiasco, part two: WWeek gets this one, with help from a commenter or two on Jack Bog’s Blog. The O? Rehashing stories yet again – a week later, no less.

Then there was the ‘did NOT! did TOO!’ bickering back-and-forths between The O and The Trib over the Francke case. Was it really necessary to put two reporters on that ancient story, just to try and make Phil Stanford look bad?

Bernie Giusto and the magical expanding overtime budget: read it in WWeek.

Bernie Giusto and this year’s almost-divorcee: WWeek again.

Michael Speck and the 85K in contracts granted to his son: Yep, WWeek. Again.

And this is just in the last few months (surely I don’t need to pile on by mentioning two more prominent names that start with a G and a P, do I?)

And the flailing? Started last year with the Wu story right before the elections; continued in the self-serving faux-congratulatory article announcing WWeek’s Pulitzer win for the Goldschmidt story, and continues yet again with the Randy Leonard front page investigation (which I’ve now dubbed ‘Wu Two’ in the comments over on this PDX Media Insider post.) (Randy posts his rebuttal here on BlueOregon, fyi.)

What’s next? Busse and The Merc scooping The O?
At this rate, anything’s possible…