OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 13, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
OUR VIEW
Good journalism
will overcome era
of ‘alternative facts’
A
merican media has never been more in the crosshairs than
today.
Like Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela and Vladimir Putin
in Russia, President Donald Trump has made hay while hammer-
ing on a press that he describes as “fake” and the “enemy of the
people.”
And he has found a receptive audience. Trust in the media is at
an all-time low.
It is worth defining “media,” as the vague and often pejorative
term means lots of things to different people. To a growing num-
ber it means cable television news more than other media outlets.
In January, about 2.8 million people watched Fox News each
night during prime time, 1.2 million watched CNN and MSNBC
had 1.1 million viewers. You can bet that can’t-take-your-eyes-off-
him Donald Trump was one reason for that increase, and likely a
reason why those numbers will stay sky high.
At the same time, about 38 percent of Americans, about 120
million, said they read a printed newspaper on a regular basis
according to a 2013 Pew Research study.
Coverage sets us apart
We are a newspaper, so we come from that journalistic perspec-
tive. We go to meetings, go to schools, go to businesses, tag along,
talk to people, ask blunt and sometimes annoying questions, read
budgets, go to wrecks, go to fires, write down what we see, gather
documents, write down what authorities tell us, ask more ques-
tions, then report.
We hope to do it with a mix of entertainment, humor and lots of
local flavor — but information is always at the core.
Despite the popularity of cable news, newspapers remain a
vital institution at the local, state and national levels, as Willamette
Week’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Nigel Jaquiss
pointed out during a Columbia Forum presentation last week.
Getting hooked
Cable news does television remarkably well. But the line
between journalism and entertainment is often blurred there.
Many news shows consist of pundits propping up, then attacking
what are often straw man arguments from an opposition figure.
Talking heads are often invited to voice a side of the issue, not
to help the audience understand the issue. It’s great television —
especially if you have a dog in the fight — but often it’s not jour-
nalism. It’s borderline debate, it’s definitely entertainment and it’s
designed to keep you hooked.
That doesn’t mean the best journalism doesn’t cause intense
reactions, as Jaquiss also pointed out as he detailed powerful sto-
ries he’s covered and the reactions to them. In local papers like
The Daily Astorian, we strive to balance impactful stories and pro-
vide readers with context and relevant, documented facts that help
round out the entire story. It’s not always life-changing stuff, more
often it is the day-to-day machinations of the world we live in and
the government we pay for, but it’s news about our community
that moves the narrative forward.
Credible sources
Many seem willing to trust government and its president
implicitly, to take one person’s word for what is fake and what is
true. We believe that’s dangerous and that good journalism is more
important when it’s under attack.
“Sure the president is beating up on the press,” Jaquiss said. “I
think they can take it — we can take it. I think what you’ve seen is
reporters who do their jobs by digging up documents, finding peo-
ple who will talk, finding people who will tell the truth — they’ll
be able to keep that guy honest. If anybody can keep that guy hon-
est, I think the press will be able to do that.”
No media outlet is perfect all the time. But you should be a
wise consumer, not reading outlets based on whether you agree
with their conclusions, but those who make you smarter and more
informed.
The media is going through the wringer right now, but it will
outlive this era of “alternative facts” and — with your help — be
better than before.
WHERE TO WRITE
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing-
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-
0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District
office: 12725 SW Millikan Way,
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005.
Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-326-
5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D):
313 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20510. Phone:
202-224-3753. Web: www.merkley.
senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E.,
H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1431. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@
state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone
(D): 900 Court St. N.E., H-481,
Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-
1432. Email: rep.deborah boone@
state.or.us District office: P.O. Box
928, Cannon Beach, OR 97110.
Phone: 503-986-1432. Web: www.
leg.state.or.us/ boone/
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
A tourist ambassador to the world
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
A
n artist of intensity, Claudia
Toutain-Dorbec has dedicated
her life to sharing her artistic
vision with others, through hospital-
ity and community involvement in
the arts. As the owner of the Cannon
Beach Hotel, the city’s longest-run-
ning lodging facility, she sees her city
of Cannon Beach as a canvas for her
dreams, and the dreams of others.
There is history within the walls
of the Cannon Beach Hotel. At 113
years young, the one-time Becker
Building is the city’s longest continu-
ously operating lodging facility.
Toutain-Dorbec bought the hotel
with her then-hus-
band and business
partner, Stephen
Tuckman, from a
former nurse who
had turned it into
the first bed and
breakfast in Cannon Beach.
Toutain-Dorbec presided over
the hotel’s centennial celebration in
2004, and is now the proprietress of
the hotel and cafe, the Courtyard, the
McBee Cottages and Hearthstone
Inn. “There’s one phrase I use for the
hospitality business: ‘It’s a daunting
job,’” Toutain-Dorbec said. “It’s a
tough business. You work Christmas,
you work Thanksgiving — you
pretty much devote your life to the
business. It’s like having dozens of
plates spinning in the air, when you
see one is starting to topple a little
bit, you’ve got to run over there and
catch it.
“We have a maxim we live by
over at the front desk,” she added.
“It’s called, ‘Do it now.’”
After Tuckman’s death, Claudia
married the renowned war corre-
spondent Pierre Toutain-Dorbec.
“Fragile and tired” after retirement,
he sought a quieter life.
The battlefield veteran now
enjoys days very different from the
35 years he spent as a photojournalist
for some of the most prestigious
international publications of the 20th
century in locations ranging from
Tibet, Nepal and China to Paris,
Quebec and Los Angeles.
The Toutain-Dorbecs break up
their “daunting job” as hoteliers with
at least six weeks of vacation every
fall, often to their home in France.
Submitted Photo
The Cannon Beach Hotel.
pretty much the case along the north
Oregon Coast. They really enjoy
Cannon Beach. It’s got those desig-
nations ‘most beautiful beaches.’ It’s
been named among the ‘most beau-
tiful places’ by National Geographic.
That really got their attention.”
The city’s growth as a welcoming
place for the arts adds to the appeal.
A couple from Berlin, here for
their third year, “loves the Coaster
Theatre,” Toutain-Dorbec said. And
that brings us to another one of her
endeavors, as a commissioner for the
city’s Tourism and Arts Commission.
Funds for the arts
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Claudia Toutain-Dorbec in front
of the Cannon Beach Hotel.
Season in the garden
In 2011, Claudia Toutain-Dorbec,
a painter, had the experience of
a lifetime when invited as an art-
ist-in-residence at the Monet Gardens
in Giverny, in Normandy, France.
“An invitation from the
Foundation Claude Monet in 2009,
based on my American Southwest
botanical work, to spend one week
per month there for five months in
2010, with a private studio, could
not be refused,” she wrote in the
subsequent book chronicling the
experience, “A Season at Monet’s
Garden.”
Monet’s aesthetic jibed with her
own sensibilities. “He was a genius,
a fabulous artist, a foodie, an incredi-
ble gardener,” she said.
Toutain-Dorbec was intrigued
with Monet’s love of Japanese art
and landscape design. But she faced
a considerable challenge when she
began her residency.
“When I arrived at Monet’s
Garden, I was told I could not cut a
flower,” she said. “I almost got on
a plane and flew back. I dug under
dumpsters, I climbed on the ground
for flowers, I bribed a gardener with
expensive shears. We arrived one
day and found gardeners digging up
all the tulips which they would not
let me touch and which they were
replacing with geraniums, fallen in a
Submitted Photo
“A Season in Monet’s Garden,”
by
Claudia Toutain-Dorbec.
Drawings from the book are on
display at the Seaside Library.
storm.”
But she found enough assistance
from gardeners and staff to complete
her project. The book debuted at the
New York Botanical Gallery in 2011
and celebrated its Oregon opening at
the Cannon Beach Art Association
Gallery in 2014.
Photos from her season in
Giverny are on display at the Seaside
Library through April 25.
International destination
In 2015, the Toutain-Dorbecs
broke up their annual travels with a
trip to Italy and last fall to India.
The exotic and varied interna-
tional background of the couple
— along with the natural beauty of
the North Coast — both invites and
successfully attracts an international
clientele to Cannon Beach.
“We do get quite a number of
French people,” Toutain-Dorbec
said. “I’ve noticed a serious uptick
in international travelers. It’s been
The commission provides funds
from the city’s hotel tax to encourage
tourism in the off-season, with
programs like the Cannon Beach
Juried Art Show, the yoga festival,
Savor Cannon Beach and the Spring
Unveiling Arts Festival, among
others.
Events like these are “critical to
our community,” Toutain-Dorbec
said. “I’m hopeful that every hotel
owner in this town feels that way.
Because that’s part of what makes
this community so vibrant and alive
and brings people in every year.
People from the cottage tour, they
come from all over the country. We
have wonderful authors that come to
‘Get Lit at the Beach.’”
Seven commissioners from
diverse industries in Cannon Beach
distribute the funds, with the goal of
putting “heads in beds.”
“We’re looking to bring people
here to stay in town for a couple of
days and provide them with an activ-
ity that helps them to get to know
Cannon Beach as a community, our
culture, our environment, our beauti-
ful flora, our fauna, Haystack Rock,
Ecola Park,” she said. “Last year we
had $285,000 to give away. It’s not
peanuts.”
Arts organizations partner with
county nonprofits to create an event
that brings people to the community,
“and we bring them the funding to
make that happen.”
Any promotion or event contrib-
uting to the arts or that would bring
in tourists from more than 50 miles
away would receive consideration.
Tourism and art fund grants can be
used for expenses like personnel,
special events, signs, promotional
materials and advertising.
The commission is “always
looking for events to bring guests to
our community, and we’re always
looking for new projects,” Toutain-
Dorbec said.
What a great way to follow your
bliss in Cannon Beach!
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and edi-
tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.