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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 2018)
Page 16 VETERAN’S DAY Special Edition O PINION November 7, 2018 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Calibrating for Fake vs. Real News Document and consider sources for reliability t oM h. h astings I teach between 300-400 students ev- ery year and one of the most frequent concerns expressed by them is source reliability. Welcome to the era of mass gaslighting. Infowars. Trump. Putin. Bin Sal- man. Fox News. My advice to those inquisitive students is to consider following or subscribing to at least three sources and making them ideo- logically different from each other and note the difference in cover- age, the contrasting frames and facts. Then, for particularly close questioning of gnarly issues, check with factchecking sites like Snopes or the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s factchecking site. By the time the curious citizen has read from liberal, conserva- by tive, and mainstream sites, and gone to reputable factchecking sites, that citizen is operating with a fairly high degree of reliabili- ty, and when you cantilever that over years of experience, validity threats are minimized. So, for instance, when I read extreme lefty dis- tress over the link be- tween the Trilateral Com- mission and “chemtrails,” I can (eye)roll my way past that fairly quickly. Reading rightwing hyste- ria over George Soros paying pro- testers may take an extra few min- utes, but I can now confidently say that the gasp-reflex rightwing rage on this is needlessly combustible, as many social movements rou- tinely cover activists’ traveling ex- penses and, for potential resisters, even bail money, as we learned in the Civil Rights era. Of course, all the gains from the Civil Rights era are pretty much what many of the Soros traducers seek to roll back. This is not to claim that no ne- farious schemes, even conspira- cies, exist, but it is to note that they should be thoroughly investigated before declaring them convincing. That investigation may come from independent journalists, indepen- dent government investigators, or even from opinionated but sincere sources. The key is to document and cite actual evidence, not to cite Alex of critical thinking and common sense to the admittedly massive raw data stream coming at us 24- 7, a person can develop a decent sense for authenticity. But I still caution that the need to (in the words of Ronald Reagan) trust but verify never evaporates. I strands of argument and analysis. In short, yes, I hope we can at least avoid the spectacle of a bitter partisan debate over whether the sun rises in the east, but let’s at least allow for some context and nuance when judging our oppo- nents’ views. After some years of engaging in information verification at a sincere and non-ideological level, and after applying the principles of critical thinking and common sense to the admittedly massive raw data stream coming at us 24-7, a person can develop a decent sense for authenticity. Jones or Snoop Dog or anyone at all from the Trump organization, Mohammed bin Salman, Kim Jong-un, or Vladimir Putin. Sorry, no cred for you. After some years of engaging in information verification at a sincere and non-ideological level, and after applying the principles like Rachel Maddow but on some issues I follow up to check. I like Anderson Cooper—same thing. Jake Tapper—him too. National Public Radio is my go-to daily news but I factcheck them before I make a claim based on their anal- ysis and I often listen with chagrin as they miss seriously important I believe Trump is a peerless disgrace, but I get his survival techniques and can let them just roll into the dustbin of lies without letting them catch my hair on fire. Dr. Tom H. Hastings of Port- land is director of PeaceVoice and on occasion an expert witness for the defense in court. Killing Thousands and Enriching Arms Sellers The lives lost in Saudi-led war in Yemen by a lex p otter The other day, over 20 people died in an airstrike in Yemen’s coastal city of Hodeidah. The bombs, dropped by a Saudi-led coalition hit a farmers market where men from neighboring villages sold their goods, hoping to at least break even and bring some food home to their families. In the af- termath of the attack, families gathered to pick up the pieces of their loved ones and hitchhiked to the local general hospital in search of the wounded. These were only a few of the uncountable thousands of civilian casualties in Yemen’s war, which I’ve followed closely since living there for years as a journalist. The frequent strikes on mar- kets, school buses, and hospitals seldom make news in the United States. Is it because Yemen seems so far away, that the blood of chil- dren doesn’t seem to reach our fingertips? Or is it because arms sellers’ profits from Yemen’s war are so substantial, we don’t dare cut ties? Yemen’s been on a down- ward spiral since a failed transition period after the Arab Spring led to a civ- il war. Since early 2015, a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled president family in their sleep. All of these airstrikes were supported by the U.S., which sup- plied training, targeting support, in-flight refueling, and the bombs themselves. Yet American politi- cians mostly stay silent. Why? Is it because the war in Yemen is so complicated? This is a cop-out — it’s our elected officials’ job to understand these intricacies, and to act when situations are unjust. I would argue it’s the cost-ben- Carrying even greater weight, especially by President Trump, is the financial benefit of this war. The U.S. sells billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the Saudis. Deaths for dollars. The lives of tens of thousands of Yemenis for the financial gain of a few corpo- rations. While there are obviously more reasons for the ongoing con- flict than this, it’s an undeniable component. Yet this last month has brought As the tragic details of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s abduction and death emerge, more lawmakers are calling for direct and tangible action against Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi’s death, first denied then whitewashed by Saudi officials, has brought together a bipartisan group calling for a cancellation of arms sales to the kingdom. has rained down air raids on the country — more often than not, hitting civilian targets. A school bus bombing in July killed 40 children. A hospital bombing in August killed over 50 civilians. An early attack on the capital Sana’a wiped out an entire efit ratio. Leaving the on-the-ground fighting to Yemenis paid by their Gulf counterparts, and leaving the actual air-striking to Saudi pilots, American officials are separated by enough degrees to not take di- rect responsibility. more change from one man’s death than the deaths of thousands before him. As the tragic details of journal- ist Jamal Khashoggi’s abduction and death emerge, more lawmak- ers are calling for direct and tan- gible action against Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi’s death, first denied then whitewashed by Saudi offi- cials, has brought together a bipar- tisan group calling for a cancella- tion of arms sales to the kingdom. “With the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it’s time for the Unit- ed States to halt all weapons sales and military aid to Saudi Ara- bia,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who introduced a bill to do just that. “Our democratic val- ues are on the line here — and we need to step up as a country and do the right thing.” On the other hand, President Trump so far refuses to stop arms sales, even though the Saudis now admit Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated. “We don’t like it, not even a little bit,” Trump said. But canceling the sales “would not be acceptable to me.” The war in Yemen will continue until those in power decide their costs outweigh the benefits — and until the rest of us insist on a cost for civilian lives. Alex Potter is a photojournalist and nurse from Minnesota work- ing mostly in the Middle East. She’s lived and worked in Yemen since 2012. Distributed by Other- Words.org.
