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Wednesday, December 20, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Editorial…
‘What can I do?’
The smoke from the Milli Fire has cleared
away, and the scars from the blaze are ban-
daged with a light covering of snow.
The impacts, however, linger on. Sisters
Country residents report ongoing upper respi-
ratory problems linked to living in weeks of
unhealthy air conditions, and businesses are
still feeling the economic body blow of los-
ing the last third of the summer season. The
environmental damage will linger through our
lifetimes.
Something needs to change. Sisters can’t
afford to endure one terrible fire season after
another. Changing forest policy — how we
manage our forests, how we fight fires — is a
big chore. And therein lies an opportunity.
In recent weeks, I’ve heard many in the
community — who are frustrated to the point
of despair by the course of the American
Republic — ask one question: “What can I
do?” They suspect — rightly — that their
Facebook posts and emails to their congress-
men are tiny, inconsequential noises in the
roaring tempest of the hyper-partisan, money-
fueled noise machine of national politics,
unheard or ignored.
Yet they can’t countenance simply giving
up and retreating into isolated silence.
Forest restoration is an issue of prime
importance to the people of our community
and region. It’s critical to our economic, phys-
ical and spiritual health. Virtually everybody
in Sisters Country — regardless of ideology
— loves the Sisters landscape. It’s a primary
reason why we’re all here.
Working together to find practical solutions
to on-the-ground problems can cut across par-
tisan lines and build bridges between people
who have become alienated from each other
by a toxic national discourse that creates divi-
sion for sport and profit.
The Deschutes Forest Collaborative Project
(http://deschutescollaborativeforest.org) offers
one way of connecting with a practical move-
ment toward forest restoration — and an
opportunity to bridges in the community.
Those who want to do something to better
their world outside of the ugly hurly-burly of
“politics” might find working for the land they
call home a worthy trail to walk down.
Jim Cornelius
Editor
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
In the latest installment of what has been
aptly called the “Bunkum Chronicle,” the
writer takes on the topic of the status of wolves
in wildlife “management.” True to form, he
throws up a cloud of words which rain down
in no coherent fashion. He has no thesis. Or,
apologies to Gertrude Stein, “There is no there
there.”
Here are two points he should have
addressed: 1. Who “owns” the wildlife in
Oregon? and 2. Should the state subsidize
ranchers and farmers by killing predators?
With respect to the first point, it seems to
me that the wildlife in Oregon, like its water
and air, belong to all the citizenry, not to a
select few who can determine an animal’s fate
based on their pocketbook. Yet, the citizenry
See LETTERS on page 14
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Jonah
Goldberg
The most important poll
number to come out last
week had nothing to do with
defeated Alabama Senate
candidate Roy Moore. It had
to do with Fox News and
Donald Trump.
First: some disclosure.
I’m a Fox contributor and
a Trump skeptic (aka a for-
mer “Never Trumper”). That
makes this an awkward col-
umn to write, for reasons that
should be fairly obvious.
Regardless, I don’t think
I am revealing any state or
corporate secrets that Fox is
the president’s favorite news
network. He says as much
all the time. According to
CBS’ Mark Knoller, as of last
October, President Trump
gave more than three times
as many interviews (18) to
Fox and Fox Business as he
has to NBC, ABC and CBS
combined (5). He’s given
two to religious networks
and zero to CNN.
Some Fox defenders
would say this is understand-
able because the other net-
works are so hostile toward
the president. They certainly
have a point. Fox critics
would say that Trump favors
Fox because the network is
exceedingly friendly to the
president. Some even call it
Trump’s “state TV.”
The critics have a point,
too, though an important dis-
tinction needs to be made.
Most of the president’s
interviews haven’t been
with the news side — which
I think usually does a very
good job of covering the
news honestly and fairly
— but with the opinion
side. Sean Hannity, prob-
ably Trump’s favorite host
and, reportedly, an informal
Trump adviser, explained
in April 2016, “If I’m inter-
viewing Hillary Clinton, it’s
gonna be a hundred times
harder than any Republican,
because I believe the
Republicans ... have a far
better vision, one that I agree
with ... I’m not a journal-
ist, I’m a talk-show host.”
(Hannity recently revised
this, telling the New York
Times he’s an “advocacy
journalist”).
Many other cable hosts
pretend that they are dispas-
sionate journalists when any
reasonable viewer can see
that they are ideological and
political partisans. MSNBC
host Rachel Maddow touts
her show as covering the
news “without fear or favor.”
I don’t know about the
fear part, but any remotely
objective viewer would see
an awful lot of favor — to
Democrats, liberals, Trump
critics, etc.
Still, the same objective
viewer simply must concede
that Fox, particularly “Fox
and Friends” (which Trump
watches to the point where
many in Washington now call
the program the “president’s
daily briefing”) and the pri-
metime line-up is objectively
and intensely pro-Trump.
The news side is a differ-
ent animal. But even here it’s
fair to say Fox doesn’t fol-
low the path forged by other
news organizations, which
often appear so determined
to hurt Trump that they fall
for bogus stories which my
National Review colleague
Rich Lowry calls, “too anti-
Trump to check.”
Much of the opinion stuff
essentially involves mirror-
ing Trump’s Twitter feed,
attacking Trump critics and
railing about the “rigged sys-
tem,” “fake news” and the
“deep state.” It’s so much
muchness, as the British say.
Which brings me to
those poll numbers. Suffolk
University and USA Today
released a poll this week
which found that among
people who trust Fox News
the most, the president’s
approval rating has been
sinking. His favorability
among Fox devotees in June
was 90 percent. In October, it
was 74 percent. This week?
Fifty-eight percent. If that
trend continues, he will be
underwater with the Fox
audience long before the
2018 midterms.
You can cry “fake polls,”
as Trump often does. But
was the same poll fake in
June? Or are the same trends
that led to Trump’s histori-
cally abysmal approval rat-
ings now reaching even the
Fox faithful?
F r o m Vi r g i n i a t o
Oklahoma to Alabama,
establishment and anti-
establishment GOP candi-
dates alike have lost in large
part because Democrats,
Independents and a signifi-
cant number of Republicans
disapprove of Trump more
than they approve of him.
His pander-to-the-base
approach still does wonders
for Hannity & Co.’s ratings,
but ratings aren’t votes.
© 2017 Tribune Content
Agency, LLC
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.