Page 4A
East Oregonian
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Fighting news fatigue
I
t can be exhausting trying to keep
up with the news, especially about
our President and his Cabinet,
as they chart a dramatically different
course for the country.
It can make you seasick trying to
concentrate on everything speeding by
the transom, whether it be updates from
overnight meetings with a nuclear-
armed dictator, stories of financial
malfeasance and corruption at the EPA,
President Trump’s continuous pokes-
in-the-eye via his Twitter feed, or the
nasty thing some dumb actor has yelled
from his rooftop garden.
It’s enough for many people to throw
their hands in the air. A new malady
has been coined — “news fatigue” —
this feeling that you cannot keep up
with the steady stream of important
information emanating from journalists
the world over. The news is depressing
and nausea-inducing, and that’s no
way to start the day. To combat the
symptoms, many citizens are finding
themselves pushed to make a choice.
First, they can convince themselves
that the firehose of news isn’t important
— you can check out and not care
about it and all will be fine.
Or they can take the route of
believing there are vitally important
updates and critical things happening
every day that they must stay apprised
of, but their own mental and physical
wellbeing requires them to take a step
back and clear their head.
Or, they can just take the tack that
everything else is fake, except for
what the head of our government says,
allowing only one person and their
supportive media outlets to dictate the
terms of reality. That’s the laziest and
simplest route, but to many it offers the
veneer of peaceful understanding.
Sure, we’re in the news business
— it benefits us for people to pay
attention.
But we’re first and foremost
citizens. And we know the danger
that comes when powerful people and
institutions attack the news, purposely
try to confuse and overwhelm their
constituents, and try to numb them with
scandal after scandal until none are
remarkable enough that they incite the
public to demand accountability. It’s
a way to get away with anything, this
slow spread of news fatigue disease.
As David Frum, the political
commentator and former speech writer
for George W. Bush, said recently in an
interview: “If your child is feverishly
ill, it can be very fatiguing to take care
of her. But it’s what you do, because
that’s your duty ... if your country is ill
you have the same responsibility. ”
Part of the reason why “news”
seems overwhelming, and some are
trying to shirk the responsibility of
understanding it, is that many people
no longer agree on what “news” is. A
recent poll conducted by the Associated
Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs
and the American Press Institute noted
that most readers and journalists agree
on what they want from journalism —
news stories that are factual and offer
context and analysis. Yet most of what
people absorb, via social media or
partisan talking heads on television, or
via 140-character tweets, does not offer
clear facts and clear context. Absorb
too much of that and the brain decides
to close down and give up.
There is a real joy of a few days
of vacation, to check out of the news
stream. That may be necessary to our
mental health, and it is also a point of
privilege — a North Korean, a bourbon
executive trying to navigate the
president’s tariffs, an illegal immigrant,
or a person with pre-existing medical
conditions does not have the ability to
check out for a few days. They must
fight and lobby, and work hard to
understand the context of their action
and those of others.
We know time away from the
fusillade is important, and useful. But
we urge you to jump back in, to remain
vigilant and knowledgeable about the
problems affecting our nation and the
progress made by it.
OTHER VIEWS
Trump outfoxed in Singapore
I
YOUR VIEWS
Pendleton chief’s departure
was not appropriate
We live in community, and many things
affect the community. It is a certainty
that [city manager Robb] Corbett and
[Pendleton fire chief Mike] Ciraulo
clashed before his abrupt retirement.
Silence, when an injustice is committed, is
complicity and perpetuates complicity.
When Mike Ciraulo was hired as
Pendleton fire chief in 2015 he came
to us with 30 years of firefighting and
emergency medical services experience,
as well as 12 years as a Battle Ground,
Washington, city councilman and mayor.
Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts
wrote in an email at the time of hiring:
“Obviously, such experience is unique,
there is tremendous value in having
someone who understands governmental
expenditure, challenge, political
navigation.”
Ciraulo came in and restored fire
department credibility and led the effort to
pass the 2016 Pendleton fire department
bond to build a new, and needed, fire
station.
What was the reason for Ciraulo’s
sudden leaving now in 2018? Simply put,
personal issues. The failure appears to lie
directly with City Manager Robb Corbett.
The city manager was to have reevaluated
the chain of command in the first few
months of Mike’s hire and reestablished
that the fire chief would report to the
city manager rather than the police chief.
This Corbett failed to do, thus laying the
groundwork for potential personal conflict
between the fire chief and the police chief.
Secondly, there was a difference
in management style between the city
manager and the fire chief, which the city
manager was unwilling to resolve. All
of this was cause for someone to admit
making a mistake. The city manager
admits to no error.
I believe, with others, Mike Ciraulo
would have walked the extra mile were
that at all possible. Mike’s leaving was
certainly not an appropriate result no
matter what may have happened.
What’s done is done, but Ciraulo’s
departure leaves a real feeling that the
city of Pendleton has lost a committed
professional. It need not have been so.
Ron Gavette
Pendleton
CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the
East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and
not necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
t sure looks as if President
for now, the bottom line is that
Donald Trump was hoodwinked
there’s no indication that North
in Singapore.
Korea is prepared to give up its
nuclear weapons, and Trump didn’t
Trump made a huge concession
achieve anything remotely as good
— the suspension of military
as the Iran deal, which led Iran to
exercises with South Korea. That’s
eliminate 98 percent of its enriched
on top of the broader concession of
uranium.
the summit meeting itself, security
Nicholas
There was also something
guarantees he gave North Korea
Kristof frankly weird about a U.S.
and the legitimacy provided to his
Comment
president savaging Canada’s
counterpart, Kim Jong Un.
prime minister one day and
Within North Korea, the “very
then embracing the leader of the most
special bond” that Trump claimed to
totalitarian country in the world.
have formed with Kim will be portrayed
Trump praised Kim in the news
this way: Kim forced the U.S. president,
conference and, astonishingly, even
through his nuclear and missile tests, to
adopted North Korean positions as
accept North Korea as a nuclear equal,
his own, saying that the U.S. military
to provide security guarantees to North
exercises in the region are “provocative.”
Korea, and to cancel war games with
That’s a standard North Korean
South Korea that the North has protested
propaganda line. Likewise, Trump
for decades.
acknowledged that human rights in North
In exchange for these concessions,
Korea constituted a “rough situation,” but
Trump seems to have won astonishingly
quickly added that “it’s rough in a lot of
little. In a joint statement, Kim merely
places, by the way.”
“reaffirmed” the same commitment to
Incredibly, Trump told Voice of
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula
America that he had this message for the
that North Korea has made since 1992.
“They were willing to de-nuke,” Trump North Korean people: “I think you have
somebody that has a great feeling for them.
crowed at his news conference after his
He wants to do right by them and we got
meetings with Kim. Trump seemed to
along really well.”
believe he had achieved some agreement,
All this is to say that Kim Jong Un
but the concessions were all his own.
The most remarkable aspect of the joint proved the more able negotiator. North
statement was what it didn’t contain. There Korean government officials have to limit
their computer time, because of electricity
was nothing about North Korea freezing
plutonium and uranium programs, nothing shortages, and they are international
pariahs — yet they are very savvy and
about destroying intercontinental ballistic
missiles, nothing about allowing inspectors shrewd, and they were counseled by one
of the smartest Trump handlers of all,
to return to nuclear sites, nothing about
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.
North Korea making a full declaration
My guess is that Kim flattered Trump,
of its nuclear program, nothing about
as Moon has, and that Trump simply didn’t
a timetable, nothing about verification,
realize how little he was getting. On my
not even any pledge to permanently halt
most recent visit to North Korea, officials
testing of nuclear weapons or missiles.
were asking me subtle questions about the
Kim seems to have completely out-
differences in views of Mike Pompeo and
negotiated Trump, and it’s scary that
Nikki Haley; meanwhile, Trump said he
Trump doesn’t seem to realize this. For
didn’t need to do much homework.
now Trump has much less to show than
Whatever our politics, we should
past negotiators who hammered out deals
all want Trump to succeed in reducing
with North Korea like the 1994 Agreed
tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and
Framework, which completely froze
it’s good to see that Trump now supports
the country’s plutonium program with a
engagement rather than military options.
rigorous monitoring system.
There will be further negotiations, and
Trump claimed an “excellent
these may actually freeze plutonium
relationship” with Kim, and it certainly is
better for the two leaders to be exchanging production and destroy missiles. But at
least in the first round, Trump seems to
compliments rather than missiles. In a
have been snookered.
sense, Trump has eased the tensions that
■
he himself created when he threatened last
Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and
fall to “totally destroy” North Korea.
cherry farm in Yamhill. He has been a col-
There’s still plenty we don’t know and
umnist for The New York Times since 2001.
lots of uncertainty about the future. But
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the
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