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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 14, 2020)
4A | MAY 14, 2020 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. Sixth St. Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424 NED HICKSON , MANAGING EDITOR | Opinion 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ CGSENTINEL . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respect- ing 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 peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Govern- ment for a redress of grievances. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) Setting the record straight with ‘The Chronicle’ Two years ago, The Sentinel joined forces with three other, smaller community newspapers in an effort to pool re- sources in covering the rising issue of death by suicide in Oregon in a special month-long se- ries. Among those news- papers, which included Siuslaw News in Flor- ence and Newport News- Times in Newport, was The Creswell Chronicle. Its talented editor, Erin Tierney, and I agreed that by sharing our re- porting with one anoth- er on this topic, we could do more together in ad- dressing the crisis of sui- cide than we could ever do individually as small papers with limited staff and resources. That four-newspaper collaboration was com- pletely unique and some- thing I remain proud of as an example of how community journalism is different from cor- porate or “mainstream” journalism, which is often dollar-driven and places “being first” over the importance of being accurate and providing context. Not long after that, I had the opportunity to meet The Chronicle’s publisher Noel Nash — a true news and media person with an obvious commitment to com- munity journalism that I knew Creswell residents would benefit from. So, it was with no small amount of surprise and, to be honest, more than a little disappointment when I read his latest ed- itorial in The Chronicle (“Big Business and Your Small Town Paper,” May 7), in which he attempt- ed to lump The Sentinel in with giant corporately owned newspapers like the GateHouse/Gan- nett-owned Register- Guard. After reading his ed- itorial, I felt the need to respond, primarily to clarify some pretty egre- gious inaccuracies that, coming from a jour- nalist, I found a bit sur- prising. First, we are not owned by “Media Gen- To be frank, I took the most offense to that comparison, and his implication that we are merely “The Cottage Grove edition of Media General.” Unlike Mr. Nash, both Damien and Nick are native-born Ore- gonians who grew up in Lane County; my family moved to Flor- ence in 1981. Everyone From the Editor's Desk Ned Hickson eral Corp.” (as was stated in the original editorial, which has since been changed). A quick reference shows that Media Gen- eral Inc. (which is the closest I could come to the company that was referenced in The Chronicle editorial) was dissolved in 2017 and purchased by Nexstar that same year for $4.6 billion. That’s not us. Our parent company, News Media Corpora- tion, is family-owned and has been since it was established by John C. Tompkins in 1975. It does own 65 newspapers in eight states (compared to GateHouse/Gannett, with more than 250 pa- pers in 46 states). In addition, papers owned by the Tompkins family are all smaller, commu- nity driven publications serving populations av- eraging 8,000 — with 5,000 being the smallest and 50,000 being the largest. In Mr. Nash’s editori- al, he also attempted to draw a correlation be- tween the kind of “ge- neric, faceless bylines … from some other place” that have become stan- dard for the R-G, and the weekly reporting done by Damien Sherwood, Nick Snyder and myself at The Sentinel. who works at The Sen- tinel, from our general manager Gary Manly, to our office manager Meg Fringer and sales staff Carla Skeel, Gerald Santana and graphics designer Ron Annis, all live in the Cottage Grove area. I challenge Mr. Nash to find any story in The Sentinel that isn’t, as he puts it, “a hyper-local vision,” which is (iron- ically) corporate mar- keting-speak for what is essentially communi- ty-based reporting. That being said, it seems a bit hypocriti- cal trying to paint The Sentinel as being a pure- ly money-driven news source occupied by faceless out-of-staters. While we are part of a family-owned parent company, the people writing the stories, at- tending city council and school board meetings, covering fundraisers and community benefits, re- porting on local athletes and students — they don’t teleport here from somewhere else. They live and work here in the valley. And the press releas- es and updates you see in The Sentinel? They’re sent in from folks in Cottage Grove and Cre- swell, as well as Elkton, Yoncalla, Lorane, Dore- na, Drain and other communities not reg- ularly covered by The Chronicle. For our readers, pro- viding a resource — es- pecially at this moment — for people to connect and be informed about ways they can help each other in the communi- ties we serve is just as important as the report- ing we do each week. Lastly, Mr. Nash pointed out that we have reached out to the community for finan- cial support through an opportunity for readers to provide a tax-deduct- ible donation. What he didn’t mention was that the program is not spon- sored by — or connected to — News Media Cor- poration (or even Me- dia General Corp.) and was established to help community newspapers across the country like The Sentinel to maintain staffing and assure local reporting continues in small communities like ours. We may have a parent company, but we are still responsible for covering our expenses in a time when we are facing chal- lenges never seen in the 131-year history of The Sentinel. Just as we are invested in the commu- nities we serve, those who value having a com- munity newspaper have an opportunity to invest in us as well. The one thing Mr. Nash and I do agree on is the need for local, trust- ed journalism. As he said in his editorial, “A rising tide lifts all boats, right?” If that’s the case — and I believe it is — then we would do better to re- member how, not long ago, we were an example of what makes commu- nity journalism different, instead of perpetuating a stereotype that we are all the same. USPS#133880 Copyright 2020 © COTTAGE GROVE SENTINAL Letters to the Editor Policy The Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published. Letters containing poetry or from outside The Sentinel readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. Political/Election Letters: Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must: 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and perspective rather than partisanship and campaign-style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid political advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria. Send letters to: nhickson@cgsentinel.com HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS Oregon state representatives Oregon federal representatives • Sen. Floyd Prozanski • Rep. Peter DeFazio District 4 State Senator PO Box 11511 Eugene, Ore. 97440 Phone: 541-342-2447 Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us (House of Representatives) 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: defazio.house.gov/ contact/email-peter Phone: 541-465-6732 • Rep. Cedric Hayden Republican District 7 State Representative 900 Court St. NE Salem, Ore. 97301 Phone: 503-986-1407 Website: www.leg.state.or. us/hayden Email: rep.cedrichayden@ state.or.us • Sen. Ron Wyden 405 East 8th Ave., Suite 2020 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: wyden.senate.gov Phone: (541) 431-0229 • Sen. Jeff Merkley Email: merkley.senate.gov Phone: 541-465-6750 S entinel C ottage G rove 541-942-3325 Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216 gsantana@cgsentinel.com Veronica Brinkley, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1205 vbrinkley@cgsentinel.com Carla Skeel, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203 csummers@cgsentinel.com Editorial Ned Hickson, Managing Editor... 541-902-3520 nhickson@cgsentinel.com Damien Sherwood, Lead Reporter... Ext. 1212 dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Nick Snyder, Sports/Community News Reporter... Ext. 1204 nsnyder@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200 mfringer@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... 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