OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2016
Social Media: Destroyer or creator?
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Leading by lawsuit
is blunt instrument
A
pending lawsuit by an environmental group is the latest
challenge to federal salmon and steelhead hatcheries
on the Columbia River, a decades-old system that has also
faced some congressional scrutiny in recent years. Although
salmon propagation practices do merit ongoing re-exam-
ination, defunding these Mitchell Act hatcheries would be a
serious mistake.
The
Wild
Fish rebuilding salmon popula-
Conservancy, a small advo- WLRQV ZKLOH VXSSRUWLQJ ¿VK-
cacy group based in Duvall, eries,” said Paul Lumley,
Washington, argues the executive director of the
federal agencies that provide Columbia River Inter-Tribal
money for hatcheries haven’t Fish Commission. “Lawsuits
coordinated their actions and like these could hurt salmon
aren’t in compliance with recovery efforts and distract
the Endangered Species us from the bigger picture of
Act. According to the WFC, working together to reform
federal hatcheries harm hatchery practices.”
Liz Hamilton, executive
“ESA-listed species and
their critical habits through director of the Northwest
,QGXVWU\
a variety of mechanisms, 6SRUW¿VKLQJ
LQFOXGLQJIDFLOLW\HIIHFWV¿VK Association, pointed out
removal activities, genetic that killing hatchery funding
and ecological interactions, would also mean loss of tens
harvest and monitoring and of millions in funding for
conservation and recovery.
evaluation.”
The state of Washington’s
The federal hatcheries,
along with others operated by separate move to designate
the states, are mainly respon- some Columbia tributaries
sible for maintaining salmon for wild steelhead also gener-
runs now that the river ates some concern in river
system is dammed. The result communities, but is a far
of compromises hammered more deliberative plan than
out between many parties, the wholesale withdrawal of
including Columbia River funding WFC advocates for
treaty tribes, hatcheries are federal hatcheries.
5H¿QHPHQWV LQ IHGHUDO
a vital lifeline for the econo-
mies of many communities. and state hatchery practices
“Carefully
managed should be encouraged.
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hatcheries play a crit-
ical role in Columbia management by lawsuit is
Basin salmon recovery by never a good idea.
Wal-MartLV¿FNOH
W
hen it comes to
Wal-Mart,
beware
what you wish for. Here is
what is happening in some
100 towns across America.
Bloomberg Business Week
reports that when Wal-Mart
closed more than 100 small
stores, it left several small
towns without a grocery.
Why? Because Wal-Mart’s
entry into their markets had
already killed longtime local
small grocers.
In retail and other lines of
business, it has become an
article of faith that consumer
loyalty
has
vanished.
6KRSSHUV DUH ¿FNOH DEDQ-
doning
long-established
brands and stores for the
faceless, anonymous market
on the Internet. What those
shoppers fail to realize when
they yearn for a market-
wrecker like Wal-Mart is that
LWWRRFDQEHTXLWH¿FNOH
Many Clatsop County
shoppers itch for Wal-Mart
to build its Warrenton store.
And why not? It is econom-
ically rational to seek low
prices. And the day likely
will arrive when the walls go
up in Warrenton.
Wal-Mart’s presence will
put some Clatsop County
businesses in jeopardy. At
the same time, Wal-Mart
will not be a community
player. That is something
that
Wal-Mart shoppers
fail to realize when they
abandon locally owned busi-
nesses in favor of the root-
less cost-cutter. Wal-Mart is
one of those multi-national
businesses that lives every-
where and nowhere. It has
no loyalty and it will not help
QXUWXUH WKH ORFDO QRQSUR¿W
sector, which provides so
much of Clatsop County’s
quality of life.
Newcomers to Astoria,
Warrenton, Gearhart and
Seaside value the individ-
uality of our communi-
ties. They like it that our
places have not succumbed
to the anonymity that has
consumed so many cities
and suburbs, and that
includes the numbing effect
that Wal-Mart has on local
enterprise.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
New York Times News Service
O
ver the last few years we’ve
been treated to a number of
“Facebook revolutions,” from
the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall
Street to the squares of Istanbul,
Kiev and Hong Kong, all fueled
by social media.
But once the smoke cleared, most
of these revolutions failed to build
any sustainable new political order,
in part because as so many voices got
DPSOL¿HGFRQVHQVXVEXLOGLQJEHFDPH
impossible.
Question:
Does it turn
out that social
media is better at
breaking things
than at making
things?
Last month
an
important
voice answered
this
question
Thomas L.
with a big “yes.”
Friedman
That voice was
Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian Google
employee whose anonymous Facebook
page helped to launch the Tahrir Square
revolution in early 2011 that toppled
President Hosni Mubarak — but then
failed to give birth to a true democratic
alternative.
In December, Ghonim, who has
since moved to Silicon Valley, posted
a TED talk about what went wrong. It
is worth watching and begins like this:
“I once said, ‘If you want to liberate a
society, all you need is the Internet.’ I
was wrong. I said those words back in
2011, when a Facebook page I anon-
ymously created helped spark the
Egyptian revolution. The Arab Spring
revealed social media’s greatest poten-
tial, but it also exposed its greatest
shortcomings. The same tool that
united us to topple dictators eventually
tore us apart.”
In the early 2000s, Arabs were
ÀRFNLQJWRWKH:HE*KRQLPH[SODLQHG
“Thirsty for knowledge, for opportuni-
ties, for connecting with the rest of the
people around the globe, we escaped
our frustrating political realities and
lived a virtual, alternative life.”
And then in June 2010, he noted,
the “Internet changed my life forever.
While browsing Facebook, I saw a
photo ... of a tortured, dead body of a
young Egyptian guy. His name was
Khaled Said. Khaled was a 29-year-old
Alexandrian who was killed by police.
I saw myself in his picture. ... I anon-
ymously created a Facebook page and
called it ‘We Are All Khaled Said.’
In just three days, the page had over
100,000 people, fellow Egyptians who
shared the same concern.”
Soon Ghonim and his friends used
Facebook to crowdsource ideas, and
“the page became the most followed
page in the Arab world. ... Social media
was crucial for this campaign. It helped
Tara Todras-Whitehill/AP Photo
Egyptian Wael Ghonim, center, a Google Inc. marketing manager who
was a key organizer of the online campaign that sparked the first pro-
test, talks to the crowd in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Feb. 8, 2011.
are now believed and
a decentralized move-
ment arise. It made people ‘We don’t spread among millions
realize that they were
of people.” Second, “We
know
not alone. And it made it
tend to only communi-
impossible for the regime
how to cate with people that we
to stop it.”
agree with, and thanks
Ghonim was even- deal with to social media, we can
tually tracked down in
unfollow and
rumors.’ mute,
Cairo by Egyptian secu-
block everybody else.
rity services, beaten and
Third, online discus-
then held incommuni- Wael Ghonim sions quickly descend
cado for 11 days. But three
into angry mobs. ... It’s
days after he was freed, the millions of as if we forget that the people behind
protesters his Facebook posts helped screens are actually real people and not
to galvanize brought down Mubarak’s just avatars.
regime.
“And fourth, it became really hard
Alas, the euphoria soon faded, said to change our opinions. Because of the
Ghonim, because “we failed to build speed and brevity of social media, we
consensus, and the political struggle led are forced to jump to conclusions and
to intense polarization.” Social media, write sharp opinions in 140 charac-
KHQRWHG³RQO\DPSOL¿HG´WKHSRODUL]D- ters about complex world affairs. And
tion “by facilitating the spread of misin- once we do that, it lives forever on the
formation, rumors, echo chambers and Internet.”
hate speech. The environment was
Fifth, and most crucial, he said,
purely toxic. My online world became “today, our social media experiences
D EDWWOHJURXQG ¿OOHG ZLWK WUROOV OLHV are designed in a way that favors
hate speech.”
broadcasting over engagements, posts
Supporters of the army and the Isla- over discussions, shallow comments
mists used social media to smear each over deep conversations. ... It’s as if
other, while the democratic center, we agreed that we are here to talk at
which Ghonim and so many others each other instead of talking with each
occupied, was marginalized. Their other.”
revolution was stolen by the Muslim
Ghonim has not given up. He and a
Brotherhood and, when it failed, by the few friends recently started a website,
army, which then arrested many of the Parlio.com, to host intelligent, civil
VHFXODU \RXWKV ZKR ¿UVW SRZHUHG WKH conversations about controversial and
revolution. The army has its own Face- often heated issues, with the aim of
book page to defend itself.
narrowing gaps, not widening them. (I
“It was a moment of defeat,” said participated in a debate on Parlio and
Ghonim. “I stayed silent for more than found it engaging and substantive.)
WZR\HDUVDQG,XVHGWKHWLPHWRUHÀHFW
“Five years ago,” concluded
on everything that happened.”
Ghonim, “I said, ‘If you want to liberate
Here is what he concluded about society, all you need is the Internet.’
social media today: “First, we don’t Today I believe if we want to liberate
know how to deal with rumors. VRFLHW\ ZH ¿UVW QHHG WR OLEHUDWH WKH
5XPRUV WKDW FRQ¿UP SHRSOH¶V ELDVHV Internet.”
Hillary Clinton’s dutiful election slog
of a century.
someone more liberal.
At this point the Clin-
Even so, Clinton appears
tons are royalty, and royalty
to have edged out Sanders
sits at a remove from
/DWH0RQGD\DVWKHXQ¿QLVKHGYRWH by mere decimal points.
all else. Among Demo-
count suggested the slimmest of victo- How to explain it?
cratic caucusgoers most
Perhaps with the sturdiest
ries for Hillary Clinton, she stepped to
DPLFURSKRQHÀDVKHGDQ2VFDUZRUWK\ truism of politics: Elections
concerned about voting for
smile of triumph and told supporters are about the future. And so
a candidate who cared about
people like them, 74 percent
that she was “breathing a big sigh of much about Clinton screams
the past.
relief.”
picked Sanders, while only
A rally of hers that I
6KHZDVQ¶W6KHLVQ¶W$QGVKHGH¿-
22 percent chose Clinton.
Frank
attended in Iowa last week
nitely shouldn’t be.
(Martin O’Malley got the
Bruni
That’s not because what happened actually began with a high-
remainder.)
in Iowa — almost a tie between her and lights reel of Clinton through time,
For caucusgoers acting primarily
Bernie Sanders — substantially loosens including plenty of footage from the on the basis of who they deemed most
her grip on the Democratic presidential 1990s.
“honest and trustworthy,” 83 percent
I understand why. The retrospective voted for Sanders, while just 10 percent
nomination. Iowa was better terrain for
Sanders than much of what lies ahead, underscored her extraordinary expe- voted for Clinton. That’s the toll of all
and the dynamics that made her a rience. But nothing in her subsequent the attention to her emails, a topic that’s
heavy favorite to be the nominee before speech looked forward as stirringly as not disappearing anytime soon.
the state’s caucuses make her a heavy those images looked backward.
She has a habit, whether addressing
favorite still.
a large group or a small one, of diving
But Iowa demonstrated, yet again,
so deeply into the weeds of a subject
Iowa
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that she doesn’t so much impress
she is. And on the Republican side, the
listeners as exhaust them. To her credit,
demonstrated,
caucuses augured the possibility of a
she has educated herself more thor-
retreat from the party’s craziness and
oughly than other politicians. But she
yet again,
the rise of an adversary, Marco Rubio,
somehow hasn’t learned to wear that
what a flawed erudition lightly.
who could give her trouble in a gener-
al-election matchup.
For months Democrats have been
and tarnished
She should have trounced Sanders.
heartened by the absurdity with which
Yes, he communicates authenticity
Donald Trump infused the Republican
candidate
to an electorate ravenous for it and
primary and by the prospect of him or
has given potent voice to Americans’
Ted Cruz as the party’s nominee. But
she is.
economic angst. But little in his Senate
his second-place showing could be his
She’s forever stressing what she’s twilight, and Rubio’s strong third-place
career suggests that he’d be able to turn
put up with, what she’s survived. “I’ve ¿QLVKVXSSRUWVWKHVFHQDULRWKDWKH¶VWKH
that oratory into remedy.
He’s no gushing font of political been around a long time,” she said in one.
charisma. He’s a 74-year-old, self-pro- Des Moines a week ago, answering —
He poses a bigger threat to Clinton.
claimed socialist who until fairly but not really — a young voter’s ques- He understands that she, like Jeb Bush,
recently had minimal name recognition tion about the dearth of enthusiasm for LVDQDZNZDUG¿WIRUWKHQDWLRQDOPRRG
her. “They throw all this stuff at me, and and he’d try to take advantage of that.
outside of Vermont.
President Barack Obama clearly I’m still standing.”
He leans hard on his youth. He talks
Bill Clinton may well garner about a new generation.
prefers Clinton. And in a poll of Demo-
crats showing up for the Iowa caucuses, applause, but every time he stumps for
Clinton needs to persuade voters
well over half said that they wanted her, it’s an implicit promise to revisit that as much as they’ve seen of her, she
someone who would continue Obama’s yesterday, not to chart tomorrow. On can still lead them to a place they’ve
agenda — which is the precise pledge Monday night, he and Chelsea stood not yet seen. She hasn’t succeeded, and
that Clinton has been making over the with her as she spoke, and I was struck she slogs on from Iowa much as she
last few weeks — while only about by the overwhelming familiarity of that did eight years ago: with more to prove
one-third said that they preferred tableau. It has been with us for a quarter than to savor.
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service