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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
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Business Manager
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Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
With free speech comes responsibility
T
he recent controversy about
whether conspiracy theorist Alex
Jones’ absurdities should be
removed from media platforms has been
shaped by his supporters as both a First
Amendment and censorship issue.
It is neither.
It is an integrity issue. The actions of
the managers at Facebook, YouTube and
Apple in removing his incendiary con-
tent are unsurprising. And certainly, they
are very easy to justify.
Free speech isn’t free — it
comes with consequences. The First
Amendment guarantees only that the
government isn’t going to arrest you for
what you say, with limited exceptions.
It doesn’t shield you from criticism
or consequences. It doesn’t protect you
from being fired for what you say in the
workplace. It doesn’t mean that anyone
has to listen to you. People can boycott
you, cancel your television show or ban
you from their internet communities.
If you express extreme and repre-
hensible views, in person or online, you
may be ostracized by society.
Unworthy martyr
Jones is a Texas-based media pundit
whose InfoWars website is a hotbed of
bizarre theories detached from any sem-
blance of reality. The only downside we
can see of booting him from Facebook,
YouTube and Apple is creating a martyr
in the eyes of the radical fringe.
Some of his musings:
• The 9/11 terrorist attacks and the
1995 Oklahoma City bombing were per-
petrated by the U.S. government.
• The 2012 Sandy Hook shootings,
in which 20 children and six adults
in Connecticut were slaughtered by a
young gunman, were an invention.
• David Hogg and other eloquent sur-
vivors of the Parkland, Florida, school
shootings in February are paid actors,
hired to advance a gun-control agenda.
(This is popularly known as “Second
Amendment fan fiction.”)
He has also been censured for pro-
tently lean in one direction, we strive to
offer a platform for readers and colum-
nists to offer alternate and often conflict-
ing views.
But with this offer comes a caveat.
We genuinely welcome letters and col-
umns that express viewpoints that are
contrary to ours. But we won’t pub-
lish material that is characterized by
name-calling, or accuses people of
crimes for which they have not been
convicted, or seeks to broadcast unver-
ifiable claims and complaints against
businesses or individuals.
Because we set and enforce these
standards, we have been accused of cen-
sorship. No. We simply set standards.
David Swanson/Philadelphia Inquirer
Alex Jones speaks at Settlers Landing during the 2016 Republican National Convention
in Cleveland.
moting “Pizzagate,” a bizarre story
about human trafficking whose publica-
tion led to death threats at a Washington,
D.C., restaurant, and a false story
about an Idaho food processor import-
ing migrant rapists — both fictions for
which Jones has had to apologize.
The problem isn’t that Jones holds
these views, or tries to disseminate
them. The issue is that all too often his
pronouncements lead others to threaten,
vandalize and harass the subjects of his
false stories.
Facebook pages which carried Jones’
statements have been removed after evi-
dence that he disseminated hate speech
against Robert Mueller, the special
counsel who is investigating President
Donald Trump and his close associates;
so, too, has his YouTube channel, and
so has Apple, which hosted his podcasts
on its iTunes platform. Mueller’s probe
reportedly examined whether InfoWars
had anything to do with Russian inter-
ference in the 2016 presidential
elections.
In all cases, these private publish-
ing companies have said the outrageous
claims fail to meet their standards and
may incite illegal actions.
“Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peace-
ably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of
grievances.”
— First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, adopted Dec. 15,
1791
Familiar controversy
If this controversy over the First
Amendment sounds familiar, it is
because it has often been addressed on
the opinion page of this newspaper.
The Daily Astorian has always had
a clear editorial voice, dating back well
before the late J.W. “Bud” Forrester
set the standard for never sitting on the
fence. We keep our opinions to this edi-
torial page, while seeking to publish
unbiased news stories on all our other
pages.
And because our editorial viewpoints,
especially on national politics, consis-
The most important words
And as for the First Amendment,
that’s all about the government improp-
erly trying to set parameters for
publications.
It doesn’t factor into the Jones case.
Back in 1791, the most important
words ever set to paper in the English
language were crafted by the found-
ers of this nation. James Madison orig-
inally wrote, “The people shall not be
deprived or abridged of their right to
speak, to write, or to publish their sen-
timents; and the freedom of the press,
as one of the great bulwarks of liberty,
shall be inviolable.”
That wording morphed through
a careful editing process into those
precious words we hold inviolable.
“Congress shall make no law . . . abridg-
ing the freedom of speech, or of the
press.”
With that freedom comes
responsibility.
Just as it is not responsible to yell
“fire!” in a crowded theater, it is cer-
tainly not responsible comment to
inflame or incite by posting obvious
falsehoods that cause others to act inap-
propriately or even illegally.
Sophisticated and communi-
ty-minded publishers know that — and
choose what they print accordingly.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
A timeless author, discovered too late
I
like to think “better late than never”
when it comes to discovering an
author.
Brian Doyle died at 60 in May 2017,
only months after he won an Oregon Book
Award for his young adult novel “Martin
Marten.”
Doyle was a former New Yorker, the
son of a newspaperman and a teacher who
made his mark in this state and dedicated
himself largely to its wonders on the coast
and elsewhere.
A former editor of
the University of Port-
land’s Portland Maga-
zine, Doyle was nom-
inated for the Oregon
Book Award nine times
and finally won in 2016
R.J. MARX
for “Martin Marten.”
As deeply as his char-
acters correlate their lives with his fiction
debut, “Mink River,” Doyle affiliated him-
self with the Oregon Coast, especially the
North Coast, promoting and sharing his
work at Get Lit at the Beach, the city’s
signature literary gathering.
Doyle was an advocate for young peo-
ple, providing workshops for students in
Cannon Beach, Seaside and Astoria.
Watt Childress of Jupiter’s Books
called Doyle a “masterful, lyrical writer,
with a heart the size of Mount Hood.”
In a 2014 reading, Doyle “relayed sto-
ries like prayers,” Childress said.
At the same event, Cannon Beach’s
internationally renowned novelist Terry
Brooks called Doyle “one of the best writ-
ers he’s ever read.”
This week, Childress compared Doyle
to the singer/songwriter Van Morrison.
“Somehow I think of them in tandem.
When you mention the lyricism. There’s
just so much feeling packed in there.
Damn! The good folks just don’t live long
enough.”
‘Just sit down and play’
For this reader, what strikes me most is
I chose “Mink River” out of all Doyle’s
the book’s mournful prose.
books, essays and poetry after randomly
Deep, drenching sadness that immerses
pulling it off the library shelf.
us in not only the rich outdoor lives of
I was so enthralled I bought a used
coastal Oregonians in the fictional city of
copy for myself, coincidentally signed by
Neawanaka, but leads us into an epider-
mal layer of pain, sadness and loss.
the author “To David.” (David, wherever
What more can we ask from a writer
you are, shame on you for parting with
than to say he has changed the way
this autographed edition!)
we look at the world around us?
“Mink River” takes you on an
Doyle reaches more to William
inner trail, a serpent’s tail that pulls
Butler Yeats and Dylan Thomas
at the connections in your mind,
than American authors like John
paints a multilayered canvas and
Updike or John Cheever, exqui-
provides raw material for a fellow
site interior monologuists both.
writer’s toolkit, which is never full
Perhaps it is the Irish brogue that
enough.
Brian Doyle
permeates the characters of the
Ottesa Moshfegh, a young
O’Donnell clan, an unforgettable
writer profiled in The New Yorker
lineage descended from the unfor-
in July, wrote: “Writing to me,
gettable Red Hugh, “a master curser who
is more musical than I think it is literary
starts cursing before he even gets out of
a lot of the time — the way that a voice
bed.”
can sound and the way that it leads the
Red Hugh can still get a “good burst”
reader in a sort of virtual reality, a journey
going, Doyle writes, “although he can’t
through its own consciousness.”
sustain an hour’s worth of snarling invec-
Doyle could have easily said the same.
tive like he could in the old days.”
“Don’t think when you write,” Doyle
Doyle’s fabulous crow, Moses, a full-
said at Get Lit. “Your head is probably
blown, walking, talking, flying character,
your worst enemy. Just sit down and play.
possesses the gift of speech, which he puts
And listen to what needs to be said.”
to good use in aiding and abetting the life
Writing, he said, is “taking an idea out
and well-being of the residents of Neawa-
for a walk.”
naka. Moses makes “Jonathan Livingston
In “Mink River,” Doyle doesn’t walk,
Seagull” look like a pipsqueak.
he runs. The setting is the fictional Ore-
gon Coast town of Neawanaka, a hybrid
Even the bears and creatures of the for-
est are given full throat. Witness the bear
name like Ursula K. Le Guin’s fictional
and her two cubs as they “trundle in rug-
“Seaview,” another tribute to our shores.
ged parade order, fascinated by bees and
“I have visited the coast very often,”
berries.”
Doyle said in a 2011 interview with the
Gazette’s Erin Bernard. “Central and
Doyle’s legacy
north, and wanted very much to sing and
Doyle is as plaintive as the ouzels he
celebrate the hard brave sweet wet wild
portrays — festive singing water birds
life there; one of the most delicious com-
ments I have had was from a reader on
— among the crawdads and water strid-
ers. His narration blurs the line between
the coast who said this book is true to life
human and animal consciousness to the
here; that to me was a great honor. I so
point where nature itself is communicat-
wanted it to be true fiction, you know?”
“Mink River” will be
the featured work of
Cannon Beach Reads,
a program from the
Cannon Beach Library
on Sept. 19.
ing, reminding us of the chirping, mewing
and mooing around us — the language of
animals.
The sentences are long, lingering, recit-
ing lists but never listing, with a cascade
of revelations ending with a punch line to
the gut.
Childress guided me to another work
by Doyle, “Spirited Men: Story, Soul and
Substance.” The 2004 collection is notable
for its profile of Van Morrison (which will
send you scrambling to YouTube for live
clips of the great and soulful rocker); con-
templations of the alto saxophonist Paul
Desmond; and an exploration of the cler-
ical themes of 20th-century novelist Gra-
ham Greene.
Doyle, like Greene, was a master of
many genres, a literary omnivore, capa-
ble of dissecting a wolverine; appreciating
and one-upping a quick wit or appraising
a pinot noir. Such writers are all too rare in
any decade.
Reading his tales of death, loneliness,
love and natural magic, I am grateful for
the legacy of work he left behind.
“People ask for him,” Childress said.
“But not enough. Maybe his name has
not risen to the point where people are
requesting him as much as he deserves.
He’s the kind of person that’s going to
be here and stick around, and people are
going to come back again and again to
read and enjoy.”
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South
County reporter and editor of the Seaside
Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.