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WEDNESDAY EDITION | MAY 23, 2018 | $1.00
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E ARLY PRESS
VIKINGS, SAILORS
SEE STATE
DEADLINES FOR
SPORTS — B
M EMORIAL D AY
128TH YEAR | ISSUE NO. 41
Siuslaw News will join other area businesses by being closed
Memorial Day, Monday, May 28. Deadlines for the following
Wednesday’s issue, May 30, will be advanced to accommodate
the shortened work week. All display advertising and legal
publication deadlines move to noon Thursday, May 24. By-the-
word classified deadlines advance to 5 p.m. Friday, May 25.
Deadline for news articles and press releases is noon Thursday.
FLORENCE, OREGON
SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890
111 TH
ANNUAL
R HODODENDRON F ESTIVAL
RHODY RENDEZVOUS
Residents ‘rendezvoused’ with tradition during Rhody Days celebration
F
amilies, familiar faces and
friends
rendezvoused
in
Florence for the 111th annual
Rhododendron Festival last week.
Sunday’s Grand Floral Parade con-
cluded the “Rhody Rendezvous” fes-
tival theme, which ran May 16 to 20.
Story by Chantelle Meyer
Photos by Jared Anderson, Mark Brennan, Ned
Hickson and Chantelle Meyer
Siuslaw News
Building Code
Division’s new
rules rescinded
By Chantelle Meyer
Siuslaw News
INSIDE
For many Oregon cities, panic brought on
by a change in Oregon Building Code Divi-
sion policy was largely alleviated over the
weekend as new rules were adopted May 18.
According to the League of Oregon Cities
(LOC), “Late Friday, the League learned that
the Oregon Building Code Division has de-
cided to rescind the recent emergency rules
relating to local building inspection pro-
grams; rules which LOC have fought as too
burdensome and unnecessary. The Building
Code Division has instead decided that more
consideration and analysis is necessary.”
Florence City Attorney Ross Williamson
said the new rules were delivered to cities on
Friday at 4:30 p.m. in a letter via email.
“I was meeting with LOC staff at the time,
trying to coalesce around a litigation strategy
that I don’t have to tell you about now,” he said.
See RULES page 9A
Classifieds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6
Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . A3
Kid Scoop . . . . . . . . . . . . . B5
Rhody Days Pictures . . . . . . A12
R HODY F EST
C O M M E M O R AT I V E A L B U M
I N S I D E
“It was another exciting, fun-filled festival week,” said Florence
Area Chamber of Commerce Event Coordinator Terry Abeyta.
“Florence truly showed all its color and spirit — especially with the
rhododendrons in spectacular full bloom.”
Davis Shows Northwest’s Amusement Carnival opened the fes-
tival midweek at the Port of Siuslaw parking lot. It was a chance for
youth, couples, groups and families to ride on the Ferris wheel,
sample a tasty elephant ear, win prizes and return to this Florence
tradition. The Davis family’s carnival has been coming to Florence
since 1950.
On May 17, the Rhododendron Court crowned Siuslaw High
School seniors Lainey Goss and Trent Reavis as the 2018 Queen
Rhododendra and King of the Coast. They were joined throughout
the festivities by the rest of the Court, Prince Colby Waters, first
runner-up Princess Denielle VanWinkle and princesses Thelma
Gentry, Alex Saindon and Andrea Sanchez-Hernandez, along with
the Junior Princess Court, Aleeya Thomas, Jasmine Krause,
Abigail Galvan-Mendez, Kylee Stinger and Brittney Adams.
The festival really kicked off for the weekend with events and
activities at Three Rivers Casino Resort, Florence Events Center
and Historic Old Town Florence.
“For the most part, people were respectful and kind,” said
Chamber Executive Director Bettina Hannigan. “Businesses really
changed up the game to welcome people to town and maximize the
festival’s impact.”
See RHODY page 10A
Concerning media bias
Documentary producer, media watchdog
Jeff Cohen discusses bias in cable news
Time magazine dubbed 2001 the
“Summer of the Shark.”
“All they talked about was shark
attacks because they had some dra-
matic examples,” Jeff Cohen, a me-
dia critic, journalist, professor and
documentary producer, said.
Cohen is the founder of the me-
dia watchdog group Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He
was also a regular commentator on
FOX News Channel, MSNBC and
CNN.
“All of the cable channels were
talking about shark attacks,” he
said.
The media began fixating on
shark attacks after an 8-year-old
boy was bitten by a bull shark in
Florida. Further attacks through-
out the summer were extensively
covered, but the hype didn’t match
the reality. Shark attacks had actu-
ally decreased in 2001 — 76 com-
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4
Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B
Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2
pared to 85 in 2000, according to
the International Shark Attack File.
“It was the chasing after ratings,
the elevation of ‘fluff ’ over real
news,” Cohen said. “At MSNBC
every morning, the top producers
would get the ratings from the pre-
vious night and we could see how
the ratings changed every 15 min-
utes. There was a real obsession
with finding anything that grabs
the audience. If you could hook
the viewers, you would just go with
that story, hour after hour, day after
day.”
The constant barrage of shark
coverage stories created a culture
of unnecessary fear about attacks,
which Cohen felt raised anxiety
and garnered cheap, quick ratings.
“It turned viewers into specta-
tors,” he said. “What the hell are
you going to do about shark at-
tacks? Circulate a petition in Flor-
THIS WEEK ’ S
By Jared Anderson
Siuslaw News
ence, Ore. about sharks? The real-
ity did not change, only TV news
reality changed. Not real reality.”
By fixating on this type of fluff,
instead of more substantive issues,
the media can disallow citizens in
taking an active role in democracy.
“What you learn in television
news is that fear sells,” Cohen said.
“It gets ratings and grabs an audi-
ence.”
Cohen will be arriving in Flor-
ence on Friday, May 25, at 6:30
p.m., to exhibit the recent film “All
Governments Lie: Truth, Decep-
tion and the Spirit of I.F Stone,”
which Cohen helped produce. The
production covers a wide variety of
topics, from how multiple admin-
istrations from both parties manip-
ulate facts, to how mass media is
complicit in deception.
ROWDY THAN USUAL
By Mark Brennan
Siuslaw News
Florence’s Rhododendron Festival is the
unofficial start of the summer season both
for residents and for many visitors to the city.
Unfortunately, it is also a time that requires
more from the area’s first responders, both
in the type of situations they will be dealing
with, and the sheer number of people they
are asked to monitor and protect.
This year was significantly less challenging
than many of the previous festivals for mem-
bers of the Florence Police Department and
Western Lane Ambulance District.
Florence Police Commander John Pitcher
feels the tone of the weekend and the de-
mographics of festival participants may be
shifting.
“Overall, it was a fairly calm Rhody Days
for us. From my view from the Bay Street
area, the carnival appeared to have at least
as many people as the last few years, if not
more. The number of people on Bay Street
itself looked to be consistent with past years
See MEDIA page 7A
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
60 53
62 52
57 50
66 49
WEATHER
Full Forecast, A3
R HODY D AYS LESS
See ROWDY page 7A
S IUSLAW N EWS
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