FEBRUARY 22, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
The ‘fakes fi rst’ media
By L. BRENT BOZELL III
AND TIM GRAHAM
The left would expect mere
mortals to under-
stand that as opposed
to them, the left rises
above the rumormon-
gering and misinfor-
mation of social me-
dia. As with so much
else regarding the left,
that’s nonsense. It cuts,
pastes and amplifi es
the unsubstantiated ar-
dor of liberal Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram at will—if it advances
the narrative. See the case of Jussie
Smollett, actor/singer in the Fox
hip-hop drama Empire.
Smollett’s “MAGA country”
hate-crime hoax is just the latest
example. Coming on the heels of
the smears of Covington Catholic
High School MAGA hat-wearing
teens, we must conclude the left is
too blind, or too stupid, or maybe
just doesn’t give a hoot. Nothing
says “viral” like a black gay celebrity
claiming he was beaten by Trump-
ster thugs. For two weeks, the left
went nuts. Celebrities took to the
celebrity talk shows, politicians
to the political talk shows and the
“news” media to the “news” me-
dia to denounce racist conserva-
tive Trump World. Now the actor’s
“modern-day lynching” narrative,
as Sen. Cory Booker declared it, has
imploded. As we’ve come to ex-
pect, the arrogant defenders of the
“high-quality news organizations”
are once again refusing to take re-
sponsibility for the gasoline they
tossed on the fi re.
See Reliable Sources host Brian
Stelter of the so-called “Facts First”
network. He claimed, “ultimately,
this is not about the media, or about
politicians or activists, or any other
people that might have been fooled.
It’s about Jussie.”
Translation: It’s all about the
fooler ... not the fools.
Later, in his email newsletter,
Stelter asked: “Was it newsworthy
when the police opened an inves-
tigation into Smollett’s accusation?
Yes. Did high-quality news organi-
zations approach the case with cau-
tion? Yes.”
This is pure nonsense, and Stel-
ter knows it. The national media
jumped into the allegations like
children jump into a mud puddle.
Only ABC, CBS and NBC have
devoted 157 morning and eve-
ning minutes to the Smollett fraud.
Some of these stories call the fraud
“alleged.” Some didn’t even bother.
Compare. Two years ago in that
same city, there was another attack.
Four black thugs bound and gagged
an innocent, defenseless
18-year-old
mentally
disabled white man. He
was beaten, kicked, made
to drink from a toilet
bowl and bloodied from
cuts to his scalp. The sus-
pects laughed at him and
shouted, “F--- Trump”
and “F--- white people.”
The entire attack was
captured on video—and streamed
live on Facebook. They were ar-
rested; he went into the emergency
room. “If it bleeds, it leads”? Not on
your life, not something like this.
The networks gave the story and all
its gore a whopping 27 seconds that
night.
Smollett’s story collapsed short-
ly after ABC’s Robin Roberts gave
him an embarrassingly supportive
interview. Call the show “Good
Fawning America.” Roberts did
not approach with “caution.” She
chose not to use the word “alleged.”
It was true because he said so, and
she wanted to believe him because
she believes this is what Trump sup-
porters do. She asked, “What do feel
people need to hear the most from
this story?” Smollett said, “just the
truth.” Her most ridiculous ques-
tion was this: “If the attackers are
never found, how will you be able
to heal?”
Oh, he knew the attackers. Very
well.
Kudos to Michelle Malkin, who
called out the media early for not
asking these obvious questions:
How many racist homophobes
wander around an upscale neigh-
borhood of liberal Chicago at 2
a.m. carrying rope and bleach and
yelling about “MAGA country”?
How many racist homophobes
have heard of “Empire” and could
recognize Jussie Smollett from his
gay character on the show?
Red fl ags were visible every-
where, including the fact that the
Chicago police told Malkin they
initially hadn’t heard the “MAGA
country” claims. Early claims that
Smollett had broken ribs were false.
President Trump, no doubt ad-
vised not to mutter “fake news”
about the story, called the story
“horrible.” But in the end, it un-
derlined why so many conserva-
tives feel the “news” business isn’t
defi ned by the maxim “Facts First.”
It’s “Fakes First.”
I-5 Crossing at
Columbia River
have been bought by
two different investor
groups from Califor-
nia. All of us have been
seething over the rent
increases in the last sev-
eral years.
Over the last three years our
space rent has been increased a to-
tal of $150 a month over an already
high space rent. What’s worse is
water and trash used to be includ-
ed and now none are. The rent is
at least $220 a month above the
two highest parks in the area. Af-
ter researching, I found that the two
highest parks are also owned by the
same group of investors. Some of
the residents in this park are 85 to
90 years old and most are on Social
Security fi xed income. The tenants
here own their own homes and
many thought they could live out
their days with minimal space rent
increases in a senior park.
Several of us are trying to sell our
homes and the space rent is so high
that homes are sitting on the market
for months. As soon as prospective
buyers hear what the monthly space
rent is, they walk. If we can’t pay
the high rent and can’t sell, what are
we to do? Is their intent for us to
just leave and then take our homes?
Something has to be done
through our state legislators to put
a ceiling on rent increases in man-
ufactured home parks, as well as
apartments and other rentals, with
a lower cap on senior rentals who
are mostly on fi xed incomes. We are
all captives and are like sitting ducks.
Let’s get the word out, appeal to our
legislators, lobby for this cause and
fi x this atrocity.
It has now gone beyond a
problem. It is become inhumane
and should be considered crimi-
nal. Sure, if this would cause a hard-
ship, a senior could fi le for Medicaid
with the state, but how long would
that take and should our state pay,
once again, while the greedy fat-
cats get richer on our backs? Help
people. Let’s do something!
Debra Martinez
Keizer
guost
opinion
(Croators Syndicato)
lottors
To the Editor:
Presently, there isn’t
enough money available
to replace the aging I-5
bridge in the manner currently envi-
sioned. But there still might be a way
to build the badly needed replace-
ment by constructing a new crossing
in stages.
Phase one: Build a northbound
span. Include an emergency access
lane.
Phase two: Open the new north-
bound span and convert the exist-
ing steel bridge to southbound only
traffi c. This change will immediate-
ly cut the traffi c fl ow over the old
bridge by one half which will greatly
extend the life of the bridge. Provide
for emergency access.
Phase three: Construct a new
southbound span when future fund-
ing becomes available. Include an
emergency access lane.
Phase four: In time, dismantle and
remove the existing and worn steel
bridge. Or adapt it to accommodate
light rail to create an experimental
light rail link between Portland and
Vancouver.
By building the new crossing in
stages it may be easier to align ex-
isting and new roadways and lanes
which will minimize the need for
right-of-way purchases.
Designers and planners will argue
that there is no project engineering
economy by having to mobilize for
construction more than once and in
an ideal situation this would be cor-
rect. But realistically, there may be
no alternative to constructing the
project in phases. There simply isn’t
enough money available to build a
complete replacement all in one step.
Jim Parr
Keizer
Senior park rents
out of control
To the Editor:
Well, they’ve done it this time.
This mobile park and many others
The emergency? Triviality of politics
By E.J. DIONNE
When House Speaker Nancy Pelo-
si learned that President Trump would
declare a national emergency to shift
around money to fi nance his border
wall, her denunciation
was predictable. But her
way of expressing outrage
was not. The issue she
used to make her point
was important on many
levels.
Observing the “un-
ease” even among many
Republicans over Trump’s
abuse of his power, she noted that “if
the president can declare an emergen-
cy on something that he has created
as an emergency—an illusion that he
wants to convey— just think of what
a president with different values can
present to the American people.”
And then she recalled the slaughter
at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb.
14, 2018, when 14 students and three
staff members were gunned down.
“You want to talk about a national
emergency?” Pelosi asked. “Let’s talk
about today, the one-year anniver-
sary of another manifestation of the
epidemic of gun violence in Ameri-
ca. That’s a national emergency. Why
don’t you declare that emergency, Mr.
President? I wish you would.”
Our nation’s deadly permissiveness
toward fi rearms was very much on
Pelosi’s mind because the House Ju-
diciary Committee had voted 21-to-
14 the night before to send a bill re-
quiring background checks for all gun
sales and most gun transactions to the
House fl oor.
It was the fi rst serious vote on
a gun-reform measure since 2013,
when the Senate fell six votes short
of the 60 needed to advance a back-
ground-checks bill proposed by Sens.
Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toom-
ey, R-Pa. It was also the most signif-
icant gun-sanity measure to move
though the House Judiciary Commit-
tee since 1993.
Yet as important as this
step was, it received scant
media notice. The drowning
out of news that mattered
tells us a great deal about our
political moment. It also un-
derscores the challenge con-
fronting those speaking for
the vast majority of Ameri-
cans who want action in the face of
what Pelosi was right to call a national
emergency on gun violence.
In counting the many costs of the
Trump era, we focus too rarely on the
president’s success in pushing divisive
trivialities and self-interested contriv-
ances to the center of national con-
cern. He manufactures crises, and then
uses his manufactured crises to create
new ones.
There is no crisis at our nation’s
border. To the extent that there are
border problems, his wall would do
little or nothing to set things right.
And Congress’ decision not to fi nance
Trump’s monstrous waste of money in
no way justifi es his seizing of national
emergency powers. His vast overreach
really does create a crisis, which dom-
inates the news and shoves aside all
other concerns. But it is all part of the
Triviality Feedback Loop that is the
Trump presidency.
In the meantime, problems that
should engage our energy are forced
to the back of the queue of public at-
tention. The normal constitutional ap-
proaches to governing -- bills passed
through committees, compromises
reached in conferences involving both
parties and both houses of Congress --
othor
voicos
are no longer respected.
And no matter how much jour-
nalists investigate and expose Trump’s
misconduct (we should be grateful for
this), his I’m-The-Only-One-Who-
Matters approach to politics fi ts well
with the needs of modern media, both
social and traditional. Clicks and page
views and ratings encourage everyone
to dwell on individuals more than on
issues.
This aggravates a profound pre-ex-
isting cynicism about the possibilities
of political action. And defeatism is
especially damaging when it comes to
guns.
For decades, as one massacre cas-
caded into another, the gun lobby
beat back even the most modest ef-
forts to control access to fi rearms. The
sense of doom about any progress is
so deep that it obscures overwhelm-
ing evidence that the politics of guns
has changed. Even the most moderate
Democrats made opposition to the
gun lobby a key component of their
campaigns in 2018 -- and in district
after district, they prevailed.
These victories led directly to last
week’s Judiciary Committee vote. Or-
ganizing worked. Elections mattered.
Public sentiment prevailed. Democra-
cy made a difference.
This is why what happened in the
House last week on guns deserved far
more coverage than it got, and why
Pelosi was right to use Trump’s pho-
ny emergency to highlight a real one.
The only cure for political cynicism is
to show that the steady and painstak-
ing work of grassroots action can bear
fruit. And the only alternative to a pol-
itics of spectacle is for elective offi cials
and the media to lift up problems that
actually need solving.
(Washington Post Writors Group)
Speaking lies and untruths in D.C.
One of the earliest life lessons I
learned was that, if fear and self-loath-
ing were to be avoided, it was best to
tell the truth the fi rst time any delicate
subject was broached. The matter of
not telling the truth, however, seems
to be frequent in far too many hu-
man exchanges nowadays:
Its presence for example
has become an annoying
condition of the president
of the United States—his
lies, half truths and down-
right fabrications too of-
ten in abundance.
Take the recently de-
clared national emergen-
cy at the southern U.S.
border by President Trump. While an-
nouncing it, he commented that the
rapid construction of a wall was not
necessary, simply his preference. What?
Trump said, “I’ve built a lot of wall.
I have a lot of money, and I’ve built a
lot of wall.” Facts disclose he’s built
no new walls. Any wall construction to
date has simply replaced existing walls,
fences and any other barriers. Addi-
tional construction will get underway
soon. It will entail 14 miles of fencing
in Texas along the Rio Grande River
but results from money approved by
Congress a year ago.
Trump said, “There’s rarely been
a problem (with declaring a national
emergency) presidents sign it; nobody
cares. And many of those are far less
important than having a border.” Facts
disclose that previous national emer-
gencies were mostly inconsequential
and did not involve a former president
overriding the Congress with its pow-
er over spending. The previous four
presidents used the national emergen-
cy to deal with overseas crises that de-
nied terrorists access to federal funds
and nations abusing human rights.
Trump said, “The big drug loads
don’t go through ports of entry.
When you listen to politicians—cer-
tain Democrats—they say it all comes
through the Port of En-
try. It’s wrong. It’s just a
lie.” Facts disclose that the
Trump administration it-
self says illicit drugs come
mainly through ports of
entry. The U.S. Drug En-
forcement Administration
reported last year that the
most common technique
by criminal organizations
is hiding drugs in passenger and trac-
tor-trailer vehicles driven into the U.S.
at border crossings. These and other
means are not stopped by any form of
border wall.
Trump said, “Take a look at our
federal prison population. See how
many of them, percentage-wise, are
illegal aliens. Just see. Go ahead and
see.” Facts disclosed by Bureau of Jus-
tice statistics report that the majority
of foreigners being held for immigra-
tion violations did not commit violent
gono
mcintyro
or property crimes.
What about other false claims by
President Trump. Well, in the last seven
days alone, truth checkers report that
he made false claims 25 times. His
false claims record since sworn into
offi ce as president add-up to 4,350 ex-
amples. On the subject of Trump’s na-
tional emergency: 30 percent approve,
70 percent disapprove.
It is diffi cult to relate to or under-
stand why President Trump fi nds it so
diffi cult, if not impossible, to address
matters of national importance with-
out lying about them. What happened
to him that resulted in an inability to
be anything other than mendacious.
Was he never given “time out” as a
child, never confronted by other per-
sons who threatened with a “knock it
off!” His ego-fi rst and country last not
only subverts the Constitution’s prin-
ciples and design but sabatogues our
democracy and the best of our values.
(Gono H. McIntyro sharos his opin-
ion froquontly in tho Koizortimos.)
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