Did a Rave Review Really Shut Down Portland Burger Bar Stanich’s?

The essay being referenced was on HN&#x27;s front a couple weeks ago (610 upvotes, 391 comments): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18469658" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18469658</a><p>Backgrounding -- and finding something problematic on someone who you&#x27;ve profiled and liked is definitely one of the least fun things I&#x27;ve done as a reporter. Regardless of the merit of the person&#x27;s claims&#x2F;denials, it must genuinely suck to have talked to a reporter for what was initially intended to be a positive recognition (e.g. &quot;proud local owner of &#x27;Best Burger Bar in America&#x27;&quot;. Only to find out that your previously private legal problems -- i.e. known only to your personal network -- are going to be mentioned in the mass media. Even if the mention is minimal -- i.e. doesn&#x27;t change the main focus of the story -- the subject of the story might wish they had never been picked as a story idea.<p>That said, when you fail to mention a glaring problem at all -- well, it&#x27;s not the crime, it&#x27;s the coverup. I would&#x27;ve understood if the original author had found out about the legal problems and decided not to write a followup at all. I can believe that he wasn&#x27;t truly aware of how serious the burger bar owner&#x27;s legal history is, and didn&#x27;t want to pry if it was the kind of crime that didn&#x27;t make normal headlines. But when you write a self-indulgent graf like this --<p>&gt; <i>And that fact is the thing I can’t quite get past. That a decision I made for a list I put on the internet has impacted a family business and forever altered its future. That I have changed family dynamics and relationships. And it could very easily happen again.</i><p>-- you owe it to your readers to make sure that you&#x27;ve done a thorough vetting. It&#x27;s true that owner that owners of well-reviewed establishments are thrown into a world of stress -- this has been true since the &quot;golden age &quot; of newspapers and print critics. But for someone to have suddenly and inexplicably shut down, it&#x27;s also possible there&#x27;s more to the story than what the owner would like to publicly claim.

&gt; Stanich and his wife divorced, citing &quot;irreconcilable differences,&quot; in 2016. He agreed to give her a family home in Tempe, Ariz., $400,000 in a lump sum and $8,000 a month in support payments—and custody of the family dog, Rambo.<p>a house, 400k, 8k every month, and the dog. Jesus.

The Probation &#x2F; Parole system, and the &quot;correctional&quot; institution in the US is a national disaster. The idea to prevent an adult, an elderly adult at that, from engaging in lawful activities like drinking alcohol as terms of probation is ludicrous. This man&#x27;s life spiraled out of control for one reason.. the punitive nature of law enforcement and correctional institutions. What should be regarded as a health condition and treated as such (alcoholism) is instead used as a tool to further humiliate and demoralize this individual. It&#x27;s not even safe to cold-turkey quit alcohol for an alcoholic because of the possibility of Grand Mal Seizures.

Pretty gross to be airing this dirty laundry in a public article.

Clear case of Betteridge&#x27;s Law: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...</a>