Opinion
A4
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
OUR VIEW
Helping shape
news coverage
of key race
V
oters, and Eastern Oregon voters espe-
cially, will be able to take advantage of
an incredible opportunity to give feed-
back to media outlets regarding what they want
candidates for governor to talk about through
90-minute virtual listening sessions.
The sessions, called “Let’s Talk,” will be
hosted on a Zoom platform and consist of off -the-
record input from voters about what they want to
know about each candidate. The goal is for news
organizations to furnish the public with viable
reporting during the run-up to the election in
November. Viable reporting means giving readers
in-depth and useable information that serves the
voters, not the candidates. The Observer will
serve as one of the hosts of the events.
To get in on this opportunity, residents can go
to “Let’s Talk” at www.surveymonkey.com/r/
8JV25WF to submit interest. The deadline,
though, is Tuesday, Jan. 25. That means those
who want to participate need to make sure they
get their names in before the close of business
Jan. 25.
The event is sponsored by Oregon Capital
Chronicle, a nonprofi t digital news service in
Salem, Rural Development Initiatives, a non-
profi t, and the Agora Journalism Center, part of
the Oregon School of Journalism and Communi-
cation in Portland.
The “Let’s Talk” initiative is a good one, and
we hope that readers will sign up so they can get
their opinions aired in a private way that will
help all news organizations across the state. We
in the news business like to pride ourselves on
our ability to know what voters and readers want
regarding coverage of events such as a governor’s
race, but the fact is the more input we can get the
better job we can do informing the public.
This new eff ort will give all of us the needed
direction that can help navigate through what
issues are important for the voter and what one
is not. We can write all the stories in the world
but if the key, essential information needed by
readers and voters isn’t there then we are not
going to be successful in our mission to inform
the public.
The sessions are good in another way. They
will provide a platform for people to voice their
opinions and concerns in a low-key, non-confron-
tational way that will help move our job as jour-
nalists forward.
The “Let’s Talk” meetings are a good way for
the public to get involved and will help the media
do a better job on this important matter.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the
opinion of The Observer editorial
board. Other columns, letters and
cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of The Observer.
LETTERS
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YOUR VIEWS
Voting rights bills will
protect our democracy
One year ago, we witnessed an attack on our country:
an insurrection by political extremists at the U.S.
Capitol.
A mob of violent rioters defaced the Capitol Building
and threatened the lives of the elected offi cials and staff
working there — the core of American democracy. This
was a pivotal moment for America and our fundamental
promise of free and fair elections.
One year out from that horrible day, Congress has
yet to secure the right to vote and the integrity of our
elections — while state and county governments are
passing laws to make it harder to vote. Hours-long lines
and oppressive ID requirements are only the beginning,
unless Congress acts.
The Senate must pass the Freedom to Vote Act and
the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act; both
bills are essential to the survival of the American exper-
iment. The House of Representatives has already passed
them. We can’t let made-up Senate rules stand in the
way of protecting our democracy.
Fighting for our democracy by passing voting rights
legislation is one of the most important actions we can
take as we commemorate this attack on our country.
Joann Dickson
La Grande
Bentz’s claim of fraudulent
election is illogical
Oregon’s District 2 Rep. Cliff ord Bentz who rep-
resents a grand slice of Oregon is telling us, according
reporting by EO Media Group, that the 2020 election
was fraudulent. He cites information written in the
Federalist that a group of people who had the money to
do so donated funds to the Center for Tech and Civic
Life.
First, the Center for Tech and Civic Life is an orga-
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande offi ce: 541-962-7691
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nization of and for election workers across the country.
It off ers courses for how to conduct safe and secure
elections. Anyone can go into its website and check out
the courses it off ers for election workers, including the
content of the courses. I suggest everyone do so before
accepting Mr. Bentz’s word that the Center for Tech
and Civic Life acted to infl uence people to vote a cer-
tain way or for election workers to swing the election
one way or another.
Next, I found an article from another organization
that calls itself 2022 Infl uence Watch that has much
information about what the Center for Tech and Civic
Life has done. If the information is correct, it is spe-
cifi c as to where funding went to electoral offi ces
around the country. I did not see any proof in the
article that proves that the CTCL is in any way par-
tisan. My problem with this article is that it starts out
by naming the Center for Tech and Civic Life as a
“left-wing” group.
There are several reasons I disagree with Mr. Bentz.
One, the Federalist is, and always has been, a mouth-
piece for the Republican party. Two, I fi nd it illogical
to infer that the Center for Tech and Civic Life turned
the election in favor of President Biden. The CTCL
provides information to election workers about doing
their job fairly and eff ectively. One would expect that
the infl uence of the CTCL would cause the election
to be conducted fairly and eff ectively. It is not logical
to say that President Trump lost just because of the
training given. Anyone can check the content of the
training to discern whether it favored any candidate.
My conclusions are: Giving a person or group a
name such as “left-wing” or “right-wing” does not pro-
vide the validity or non-validity of that person or group.
“Correlation does not equal causation” is still the case in
any logical argument. I would also infer that Mr. Bentz
believes that any election is fraudulent in which his can-
didate is not the victor.
Evelyn Swart
Joseph
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