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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2017 Founded in 1873 DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Managing Editor JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager OUR VIEW Trump’s attacks on the media risk freedom ‘W ords spoken by the president of the United States matter. Are you tonight recanting the oath you took on Jan. 20th to preserve, protect and defend the First Amendment?” U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, asked this important question of President Donald Trump last week. Trump said NBC should be punished for a story he didn’t like by having its Federal Communications Commission license revoked. The president didn’t understand the broad- caster doesn’t rely on such a license. The threat is nevertheless deeply objectionable. Trump’s tweets and comments often are empty provoca- tions, mainly intended to inflame his true believers. However, his many threats and insults thrown at working journalists and media organizations have real-world consequences. They must not go unchallenged by any American who genuinely cherishes our own democracy and cares about the pursuit of freedom in the rest of the world. Trump’s current target is NBC News. It is not the most revered member of the journalistic profession, being widely accused of wimpiness last year in covering the president’s sex- ual assault admission to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush and this year’s allegations of sexual predations by movie pro- ducer Harry Weinstein. The network’s former news anchor Brian Williams was demoted for lying about his experiences covering the Iraq War. The president’s rant centers on an NBC report that Trump wanted a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The network implied it was this proposal in a July 20 meeting that led Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to call Trump a moron. There is no indication the network’s report was incorrect. Adversarial relationship Everyone understands why politicians get frustrated at the news media. It often is an adversarial relationship. Our tradi- tions place the press in the role of independent watchdog over government. Because of this, some politicians regard the news media with the same loathing heaped on police internal-affairs divisions in stereotypical cop shows. Trump has taken this idea and ramped it up, trying to immunize himself against legitimate news by painting all journalists as liars and traitors — smart alecks out to get him. The president’s disdain for national media is ironic, con- sidering how his celebrity status led to his election. Without the lavish coverage of him by television, magazines, radio and newspapers, he might still be nothing but a bankrupt casino owner. Most politicians implicitly realize they have some form of symbiotic relationship with the press. Hopefully, this usually is in the public interest by sharing information and building a sense of national unity, but other times it simply derives from a shared desire to ride the publicity train to fame and fortune. Many politicians indulge in ritual complaints about vic- timization by the press. Trump far oversteps normal bounds. Calling major news outlets “the enemy of the American peo- ple” and saying journalists are “sick people … trying to take away our history and our heritage” places honest news report- ers at risk. There have been 20 arrests and 21 physical attacks on U.S. journalists this year, according to Columbia Journalism Review. Trump’s bullying words also have dangerous conse- quences beyond our borders. Worldwide, there are 259 journal- ists currently imprisoned for doing their jobs, CJR reports. In Turkey, Mexico and elsewhere, strongmen attack the indepen- dent press. Reporters doing their jobs by shining a light into the dark recesses of criminal enterprises and political repression too often pay for their courage with their lives. By attacking America’s press, the world’s biggest strongman provides inspi- ration for all who aspire to dominate others. ‘American identity’ In a column in CJR, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger notes the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech and the press “is a core part of the American identity. As much as it is about ‘rights’ — the right of dissent, of sover- eignty residing in the citizenry and not in the government, and so on — it is also about the character of the society. To listen to people speak of free speech and press is to hear about fortitude, bravery, magnanimity, self-doubt, and the capacity to reason and respond; to recognize the importance of compromise, and to learn to live with some degree of chaos, uncertainty, and dis- cord; and to value creativity and change over always trying to preserve the status quo.” As Sen. Sasse said, words matter — especially those of the U.S. president. Some are taking his words to heart. Freedom suffers as a result. Trump swore to uphold the Constitution. He must endeavor to keep his word, even when it comes to freedom of the press. SOUTHERN EXPOSURE Learning from the ‘McMinnville model’ O ne of the best writers I ever worked with was a 17-year- old intern. She was a Lake Oswego High School senior stay- ing with her aunt over a summer in suburban New York City, where I edited a newspaper. Olivia wrote more stories a week than full-time staff — and the material sparkled. No wonder she won a Northwest Excellence Award for high school journalism that year. Employers from throughout the North Coast are hoping to find that sparkle in their interns, and compa- nies including Martin North, Lum’s Auto Center, Providence Seaside Hospital and Fort George Brew- ery came together in September at the South Campus of Clatsop Com- munity College in Seaside to learn more. “School district leaders were saying we want to engage with their industry partners, and our indus- try partners were saying they want to engage more with the school dis- trict,” Kevin Leahy of Clatsop Eco- nomic Development Resources, the host of the event, said. “It was a gap everybody voiced.” Project goals Myronda Schiding, a curricu- lum coordinator with the Northwest Regional Education Service Dis- trict, said the district visited Yamhill County, where she began conversa- tions about internship programs and grant opportunities. The goal is to develop an intern- ship program for the county, Schid- ing said. “As we kept talking about it, we realized an internship project that is comprehensive and commu- nity-based like the McMinnville model would thrive here,” Schid- ing said. She was referring to the McMin- nville Works Internship Program, developed by Jody Christensen, executive director of McMin- nville Economic Development Partnership. Christensen was invited to Clat- sop County by a coalition of CEDR, industry partners, local school dis- tricts and the Northwest Regional Education Service District to share her experience. McMinnville Works In McMinnville, businesses were shutting down production facilities, Christensen said. “Businesses were flying out of our community,” Christensen said. “They were not filling positions for eight months. It was a problem, so we knew we had to have a grow- our-own work approach.” One of the items industry part- ners wanted to explore was intern- ships, she said. “They wanted us to take the mystery out of it, the com- plexity and simplify it. So they came on board and we developed the McMinnville Works Program.” The program is in its sixth year, she said. “Every community is looking at ways of attracting and retain- ing homegrown talent, and to take a grow-your-own workforce approach is the right thing to do,” Christensen said. “While industry wants longer connections with the school districts in the academic world, the academic world wants stronger connections R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Jody Christensen, Myronda Schiding and Kevin Leahy at the intern- ship workshop in Seaside. with industry, so they are putting resources to making those things happen.” Programs defined Employers from Cannon Beach, Warrenton, Seaside and Astoria par- ticipated in hands-on exercises to define the intern’s role. Should internship opportunities be paid or unpaid? Part time or full time? What are the expectations of employers? Well-delineated career path opportunities help interns learn “people and parts,” Christensen said. Clatsop County has an extraor- dinary opportunity, Christensen added. “You already have people who are engaged in the conversation, you have a comprehensive support system, you have an industry and employers who want this program to be successful, so that’s all you need,” she said. “Today what we are doing is uncovering some of the ele- ments to help make that happen.” A pilot launch Project descriptions, age ranges, paid or unpaid programs are yet to be determined in the crafting of the program. “This is going to be Clatsop County’s internship program,” Christensen said. “They can develop it to be all different shapes and sizes. Let’s create the basic founda- tions and then build from there.” Internships were originally designed for students 18 and older, Leahy said, but the program was expanded to include younger students. How will the program’s success be judged? “This is considered a pilot launch,” Christensen said. “I wouldn’t judge it on numbers, I would judge it on year two, who returns … and then you can start having your benchmarks.” The goal is to develop a frame- work for an ongoing internship pro- gram in the county, she said. The program could be tailored to indi- vidual communities. Both students and employers need to be part of the conversation, Christensen said. “They’ll help develop the pro- gram where they can,” she said. Internships could span busi- nesses large and small. “Every industry in your commu- nity, every sector should be able to play in this space. They should be able to have an internship.” What a company’s internship program looks like in a year or five years could be very different, Christensen said. Students graduating internship programs can share their experi- ences with future participants. “We want multiple touch points with industry, with families, with community members with young children, so they know that this internship model is something that they can grow into,” Schiding said. “Part of this is marketing to local industry, to families, to the com- munities and growing that local workforce.” Retaining talent The September workshop was the first step in reaching out to employers, Leahy said. An employer-led steering com- mittee meets with CEDR’s core planning group monthly, he said. The steering committee plans to attend an upcoming meeting of Clatsop County school superinten- dents to review funding needs for a countywide internship coordinator to move the program forward. “We want to have more expo- sure,” Leahy said. “We want the kids to know about us.” The program may offer oppor- tunities who may not do the tradi- tional four-year college route, he said, and it may draw graduates to jobs in Clatsop County. “As a small rural county, we want to keep all of our talent,” Leahy said. Port of Astoria Executive Direc- tor Jim Knight said he planned involvement in the program. He proposed tasks in the Port’s envi- ronmental programs such as col- lecting samples or stormwa- ter testing. Interns could perform administrative tasks, security or marketing roles. “It really runs the gamut,” Knight said. As for my journalism intern from Lake Oswego, 10 years later, what is she doing now? Not in jour- nalism, alas, but her career path hasn’t been too shabby. She gradu- ated from Stanford University and is now an analyst at a prestigious investment bank in New York City. I like to think I’ve always been good at spotting new talent! R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori- an’s South County reporter and edi- tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.
