Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, July 14, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Bernie and Hillary As Trump won, media
coverage
turned
negative
sittin’ in a tree
On Tuesday, Bernie Sanders and
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same side of the fence.
You could almost see Hillary trying
to slide closer while Bernie tried to
keep his distance — a classic forced
romance.
Clinton, though disliked by a
majority of Americans, is likely the
next president. Her election will do
nothing to unite a divided nation, yet
we shudder to think of the size of the
divide if she were to lose. Trumpzilla
has already enraged and insulted
more than half the planet — and that’s
without having his hands on the levers
of power that can put his threats into
action.
Clinton won the Democratic
primary fair and square — she
won more votes and she won more
contests. Sanders had to concede but
he didn’t have to endorse, and he did
so only to help defeat Donald Trump.
Had the Republican nominee been
someone as benign as John McCain
or Mitt Romney, Sanders may have
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most successful third-party candidates
in history.
Sanders’ desire to keep some
distance was quite clear.
That’s because Clinton’s
problems are real, and last week
was a damaging one. It’s no wonder
that her campaign timed Sanders’
endorsement to quickly follow the
results of a Department of Justice
inquiry into her private email server.
Republicans missed the boat when
they chose to rail against the decision
not to indict, instead of highlighting
the immense and systemic problems
the Department of Justice found with
Clinton’s email server.
The DOJ discovered the server was
incredibly easy to hack — easier than
if Clinton was using a basic Gmail
account. Clinton claimed multiple
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information through the server but the
DOJ said that was untrue — she had
sent more than 100 such items. And
she said her staff was very aware of
the legal of their actions, but the DOJ
said that was untrue too, noting that
the entire operation was extremely
careless about handling important
information and had no idea where
the legal boundaries were.
The DOJ also contradicted
Hillary’s claims that the email was
about convenience — noting it was
an unnecessarily complex setup with
multiple servers for multiple devices
and, ergo, multiple opportunities
for sabotage. The investigation also
contradicted Clinton’s claims that
her lawyers looked over her deleted
emails, which means a good deal
of public information was likely
destroyed.
In Intercept, Glenn Greenwald
made a convincing case that had
Hillary not been Hillary, the Obama
Administration would have tried to
not just indict her, but put her in prison
for a long time. They’ve done the
same with Chelsea Manning, Daniel
Ellsberg and Tom Drake — and will
with Edward Snowden if they get their
hands on him. Security and secrecy
have been hallmarks of the Obama
presidency, who like our own governor
talks big about transparency but often
comes up well short of a stated goal.
When politicians so clearly attempt
to hide information and subvert public
scrutiny, it’s no wonder that voters
are not inclined to support them.
Americans have a decision to make in
November, but no good options.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
A new report from Harvard
even more dominant, consuming 71
University says press coverage of
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Donald Trump’s presidential campaign
on issues. Trump thrived.
became progressively more negative as
But then, as Trump took command
Trump built a lead in the Republican
and there was progressively less
primaries — and soared after Trump
suspense in the race, the emphasis on
clinched the GOP nomination.
horserace went down — to 57 percent
A graph in the report from the
midway through the campaign, and to
Shorenstein Center of Media, Politics
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Byron
and Public Policy forms an almost
coverage of substance went up.
York
perfect “X,” as Trump coverage went
According to Patterson, issue coverage
Comment
from 57 percent positive and 43 percent
was 12 percent of coverage in the middle
negative during the early Republican
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primaries to 61 percent negative and 39
Issues coverage of Trump was negative
percent positive after Trump defeated his last
from the beginning; it’s just that there wasn’t
Republican rivals.
much of it in the early, heavily horserace
“The tone of Trump’s
period. But when the
press coverage during the
horserace died down, there
last month of the primaries
was more issues coverage,
was negative,” writes scholar
and it was just as negative as
Thomas Patterson. “The
always. Presto — the overall
mostly favorable coverage
coverage became more
he had received earlier in
negative.
the primary season had
“The unfavorable tone of
turned sharply downward.
Trump’s coverage owed to
Negative statements about
a shift in its content,” writes
his candidacy outnumbered
Patterson. “The primary
positive statements by 61
victories that moved him
percent to 39 percent. His
ever closer to a delegate
coverage was more negative
majority were a source of
than that of any other
positive news. But victories
victorious candidate of either
in the absence of competitors
party at any stage of the primaries.”
are less newsworthy, opening up news time and
The explanation is not terribly complicated.
space for other subjects.
The Harvard study looks at two kinds of
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campaign coverage — on one hand, horserace
increasingly probed Trump’s character and
and process stories, and on the other substance, policy positions, framing them through the lens
or issue, stories.
of Trump as a possible president rather than
Like so much academic press analysis,
Trump as a striving candidate. News references
the study rues the dominance of horserace
to Trump’s character and policies, which in
coverage.
earlier stages had never accounted for even as
Good or bad, Patterson concludes the
much as 10 percent of his coverage, jumped to
emphasis on horserace helped Trump in the
19 percent of it. The tone was cutting. Negative
early weeks of primary and caucus voting;
statements outpaced positive ones by 10 to 1.”
Trump’s coverage was at its most positive when
Some Republicans, at least the ones who
the campaign was in its most intense horserace
strongly support Trump, will attribute the
stage. Coverage at that point in any race is
negativity to media bias rather than any
about who’s winning, who’s losing, who’s
coverage “shift in content.” But Trump’s
moving up, and who’s moving down. Trump
amazing run through the primaries did keep a
was moving up.
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Patterson found that 65 percent of coverage
amazing run. Once it was over, and Trump was
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the Republican nominee, there was never any
Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and
doubt that would change, for whatever reason.
Nevada — concerned the horserace, while just
Ŷ
6 percent could be characterized as focusing on
Byron York is chief political correspondent
issues. By Super Tuesday, the horserace was
for The Washington Examiner.
Emphasis on
the “horserace”
helped Trump in
the early weeks
of the primary
and caucus
voting.
OTHER VIEWS
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The (Eugene) Register-Guard
F
iguring out how to improve
public education is like
putting together a jigsaw
puzzle. Hundreds of different
pieces are on the table — different
sizes, different shapes — but until
someone steps up and puts them
together, there is no clear picture.
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and government agencies in
Oregon have been working to put
the pieces together. Here and there
on the tabletop, parts of the puzzle
are coming together. But there’s
still a long way to go before a
complete picture emerges.
School funding from tax
revenues will always be a major
part of the puzzle. But, absent
major reforms that would funnel
more money into schools, many
districts continue to look for ways
to improve educational outcomes.
One of the key parts of the
picture that has been emerging
in recent years is the critical
importance of pre-kindergarten
learning.
The sheer volume of
information available — from
research done by universities
and foundations to one-page tip
sheets for parents that can be
downloaded free from the state
Department of Education — can be
overwhelming.
And the information serves little
purpose unless people caring for
and educating children know this
information is out there and how to
gain access to it.
While Oregon has made
full-day kindergarten a reality
across the state, a laudable
achievement, it’s increasingly
well-understood that much of brain
development occurs long before
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or even kindergarten, is too late
to begin tackling educational
challenges.
Achievement gaps between
children already exist by the time
they enter kindergarten. And these
gaps — which often are linked to
a family’s income level — widen
each passing year, with children
who lagged initially falling further
and further behind.
Children who are not reading
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grade are four times more likely to
not graduate from high school than
those who have mastered reading,
according to research from the
Annie E. Casey Foundation. Add
poverty into the mix, researchers
found, and those third-graders who
can’t read well are more than six
times more likely to not graduate.
But, while evidence of the
importance of pre-kindergarten
education continues to mount,
educators and parents often
struggle with how to transfer the
reams of information produced
by foundations, universities and
government agencies into the real
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ways to connect resources and the
people who can make best use of
them — parents and others who
care for the youngest children.
What makes this particularly
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schools generally isn’t provided
for the pre-kindergarten programs.
Money for these programs
would have to be diverted from
kindergarten through high school
programs, many of which are
already stretched
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But there
have been some
encouraging
developments
in Lane County
in recent
years, where
partnerships
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groups, schools
and parents have
found funding
for successful
programs targeting the critical
pre-kindergarten years.
Among these is the Kids in
Transition to School (KITS) project
— which began as a pilot project in
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districts in collaboration with
United Way of Lane County and
the Oregon Social Learning Center.
Among other things, KITS
teaches pre-schoolers pre-reading
skills, such as letter names and
sounds, and social skills, such as
taking turns, that prepare them
for kindergarten. Parents also are
invited to workshops on topics
such as how to prepare their kids
for a strong start in school and
establishing homework routines.
KITS has been successful in
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United Way, but not all districts
are able to, or know how to, gain
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support.
How this was accomplished
in Lane County, and the results
the program is showing, could
be useful to other districts in
the state. But, without a central
clearinghouse,
or system, for
sharing this type
of information
across the state,
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to disseminate
the how-tos of
success stories
such as this.
Many districts
struggle with
similar issues,
particularly
when it comes to
the pre-kindergarten years that can
set up a child for success in school
or doom them to failure.
Finding children who need help
before they enter school, reaching
parents who are often working
long hours, and sometimes
dealing with language barriers,
can be challenges for many school
districts and early-education
programs.
The KITS program has been
able to overcome many of these
hurdles, in part because it was able
to build on an existing cadre of
First grade,
or even
kindergarten,
is too late to
begin tackling
educational
challenges.
dedicated volunteers in the Bethel
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is a success story that other districts
around the state could learn from.
What is happening locally is
part of a larger picture, which
is that parents, educators and
taxpayers all have an interest in
seeing children succeed and that
a comprehensive, coordinated
approach — starting in the key
years before kindergarten — would
help everyone.
Too often school districts,
teachers and parents are working
in isolation, unable or uncertain
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resources they need. This has
become more evident with the
growing body of research showing
the importance of early learning,
which operates mainly outside the
existing public education system.
This is why a big step
forward would include setting
up a centralized system to share
information on programs that
are working, including funding
sources, that could be replicated, or
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If less time is spent reinventing
the wheel, and more time spent
moving the cart forward, everyone
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LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less
on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper
and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold
letters that address concerns about individual services and products
or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted
letters must be signed by the author and include the city of resi-
dence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be
published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to
Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton,
OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.