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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 2018)
2 Wednesday, September 12, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Anonymous op-ed was a bad call 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Early in this year’s Sisters Folk Festival, I was searching online for what Lifetime Achievement or Artistic Director Hall of Fame for which to nominate Brad Tisdel for his curatorial work every year on SFF. While our hearts are full listening to acous- tic folk, this year was out of this world as Brad introduced us to the many fusion directions current folk music is evolving such as The Dustbowl Revival, Kahulanui, Ron Artis II, GangstaGrass. On Sunday, artist Ron Artis II (Ron Artis II & the Truth) said it best from the stage: “Everyone in Sisters should be writing let- ters to the world that say THIS is how you curate a folk festival.” Couldn’t agree more, Sisters Folk Festival 2018. Bravo to Brad and the entire SFF team for a flawless event. Jeanette Pilak s s s a real issue this summer. I have had to slam on my brakes (with my dog slamming the back of the seats) six times this summer from rolling stops of side-street drivers who ignore the stop signs. I am not alone in this complaint, nor are these all tourists. On the contrary, most have been locals. I was cited in 1984 for this at $93. That put the brake on my rolling stops. When we had our own police force, this violation was much more controlled. Parking an empty sheriff's car in town precisely where the traffic has to slow any- way is not much of an assist. The worst speed violations are at the elementary school, where I have clocked even government cars driving as fast as 45 in a 20 mph zone at a school. We need more presence. We need to get results from what the city pays to the county. Bonnie Malone s To the Editor: The discussion about policing in Sisters is s s See LETTERS on page 11 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday PM Showers Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy AM Clouds/PM Sun Mostly Sunny 63/39 65/36 65/37 67/39 67/39 Monday Sunny 73/41 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor in Chief: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Graphic Design: Jess Draper Community Marketing Partners: Patti Jo Beal & Vicki Curlett Classifieds & Circulation: Lisa May Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2018 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. Last week The New York Times published an anony- mous op-ed by a “senior official in the Trump admin- istration” entitled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The essay should not have been written anony- mously, and The Times should not have published it anonymously. Had the senior official written the piece under his or her signature and will- ingly accepted the conse- quences of so doing, the piece might actually have been the bombshell it has been portrayed as being. If the writer is, in fact, an offi- cial of some stature in the administration (as opposed to, say, another Omarosa Manigault Newman), writ- ing a signed op-ed in The New York Times would have been an act of genuine pro- test and resistance. It might have made a difference. Instead, it is merely another tranche of office gossip, part of a whisper campaign to take down a president. I have no doubt that The Times knows and vetted the source and that the source is real. It would be hard to resist running a cri de coeur from deep inside a troubled White House. But The Times should have resisted the temptation. The Nugget will not publish an anonymous letter to the editor or opin- ion column — though in a small town, a letter-writer is putting himself or her- self at potential social and economic risk by express- ing an unpopular opinion. We simply believe that one should own one’s opinion. Period. The Times argues that anonymity is the only way to deliver an important perspective to their read- ers. That’s hard to swallow. There’s nothing in the essay that hasn’t been reported upon or alluded to repeat- edly since President Trump took office. The op-ed lacks specificity. While an opinion column does not call for the same kind of scaffolding as a news story — even one built on anonymous sources — the “I Am Part Of The Resistance” piece doesn’t give us dates, times, specific incidents on which to hang our hat. It doesn’t give us much at all, other than the impression that the writer desperately wants to be regarded as one of the “good guys.” And it must be noted that it seems rather odd if you are trying to mount an effective resistance to call so much attention to yourself. There’s not enough there to justify the exceptional decision to publish an anon- ymous screed. In the same week, excerpts of Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Fear,” painted a very clear pic- ture of a staff compelled to conduct damage con- trol on behalf of an incon- stant, amoral and impulsive president. And the president’s own rage tweets offer a clear enough picture of his fitness for office. The fact that the senior official took it upon himself or herself to write the “resis- tance” essay is the only news value the op-ed con- tains. Leaving it anonymous is tantalizing, not probative. Which leads to the most troubling aspect of this affair: It’s hard to escape the conclusion that The Times’ actual intent in running the piece was not a journalistic one — “to bring an impor- tant perspective to readers” — but rather an effort to sow paranoia, rage and chaos in the White House, and across the fruited plain. Mission accomplished. The White House is on a “rat hunt” and the rest of Washington is engaged in an entertaining parlor game. It is fair to ask: To what benefit and at what cost? The likely result is a still more rage- afflicted president, a staff willing to go to extremes to prove their loyalty, and an important journalistic insti- tution that has cast a shadow over the legitimacy of its own motives. Surely some of you have thoughts on this matter. Send them in. We’ll publish them. But you’ll have to sign your name. Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.
