OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
A4
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
OUR VIEW
On the value of high
school sports and
local journalism
L
et’s take a moment to
show some apprecia-
tion for Grant County’s
high school athletes, who just
wrapped up fall sports. Both
Grant Union and Prairie City
sent teams to the postseason, and
while Dayville/Monument had
less success this year, we applaud
all the student-athletes for their
hard work and dedication.
The Grant Union volleyball
team capped a strong 2021 cam-
paign by bringing home some
hardware. After fi nishing the reg-
ular season with a 19-10 over-
all record, the Lady Prospectors
went 2-0 in the Blue Mountain
Conference Tournament to move
on to the state playoff s, where
they collected a trophy for fi n-
ishing fourth statewide in Divi-
sion 2A.
Even though they fi elded a
much smaller roster than some of
their opponents, the Grant Union
football team made the postsea-
son after going 3-3 in the 2A
Special District 5. The Prospec-
tors bowed out in the fi rst round
after falling on the road against
Lakeview. One of the Pros’ sea-
son highlights was scoring a pair
of touchdowns against a pow-
erful Heppner squad that hadn’t
given up a single point in any of
their previous league matchups.
The Prairie City volleyball
team fi nished strong, going 2-1
in the High Desert League’s
tournament to qualify for post-
season play. In their fi rst-round
matchup, the Panthers faced
Central Christian of the Moun-
tain Valley League on the road,
falling 3-1.
The Prairie City football team
just missed the playoff s this year
after losing a 51-48 slugfest to
Alsea. It was a tough end to a
strong season that saw the Pan-
thers go 6-1 in the High Desert
League. The team also racked up
the league’s Coach of the Year
honors for Nick Thompson and
Off ensive Player of the Year for
standout running back Cole Teel.
And while we’re at it, we’d
also like to express our gratitude
to all the hard-working coaches
and volunteers who put so much
time and eff ort into helping these
kids be the best they can be, not
only in their chosen sports but in
life as well. Thanks for all you
do.
Here to stay
On today’s Opinion page,
you’ll fi nd a letter to the editor
from Gary Davidson, a Canyon
City resident who wants to know
about the future of the Blue
Mountain Eagle. He’s concerned
that the paper could lose its local
editorial control and become a
repository for regional news with
little relevance to Grant County
readers. We suspect other readers
share Mr. Davidson’s concerns,
so we wanted to take the time to
address them here.
The Blue Mountain Eagle is
the oldest weekly newspaper in
Oregon, tracing its roots all the
back to 1868. In 1979, the Eagle
was purchased by the East Ore-
gonian Publishing Co. Now
known as the East Oregonian
Media Group, the company pub-
lishes 15 newspapers and two
magazines in Oregon and south-
west Washington.
EO Media is not some far-
away, publicly-traded corpo-
ration beholden to stockhold-
ers who care about nothing
but profi ts and dividends. It’s a
fourth-generation family-owned
company with deep roots in Ore-
gon and a demonstrated commit-
ment to local journalism. Here
at the Eagle, we don’t subscribe
to any national wire services, but
we are able to use stories pro-
duced by other EO media news-
papers, including half a dozen
right here in Eastern Oregon.
We see that as a strength, not a
limitation.
We’re also able to collaborate
with other papers in the group to
produce regional stories about
topics that have local impacts
here in Grant County, leveraging
what we’re able to accomplish
with our small staff . As regular
readers will have noticed, we’ve
been down to one reporter since
June. We happen to think Steven
Mitchell has done a terrifi c job,
but he can’t be everywhere at
once, and we are actively recruit-
ing to fi ll our vacant reporter
position. Once our newsroom is
back at full strength, you’ll see
even more local stories and pho-
tos in our pages.
So, Mr. Davidson, to answer
your question: No, this newspa-
per is not going to be swallowed
up by its parent company and
stripped of its local identity. The
Blue Mountain Eagle is here to
stay, and we’re going to keep on
doing what we’ve been doing
for the last 153 years: serving the
people of Grant County, Oregon.
We are grateful to all the sub-
scribers who support our mission
of delivering strong local journal-
ism. If you’d like to become one
of them, go to www.bluemoun-
taineagle.com/subscribe-now/ to
see our latest off ers.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
USPS 226-340
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
Email: www.MyEagleNews.com
Phone: 541-575-0710
John Day, Oregon
MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
E DITOR
R EPORTER
S PORTS
M ULTIMEDIA
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O FFICE A SSISTANT
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Steven Mitchell, steven@bmeagle.com
sports@bmeagle.com
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Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com
Alixandra Hand, offi ce@bmeagle.com
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY EO Media Group
Blue Mountain Eagle
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845-1187
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COMMENTARY
Tax credit will support local news
I
magine this page was blank except
for one question: “What if there
were no local reporters?” That was
the front-page question posed by our
friends at Pamplin Media last week.
It’s a good question and regardless of
how you get local news — by watching
TV, listening to local radio or reading
a story in the newspaper or on a news
organization’s website — it’s not hyper-
bole to say communities suff er when
there is no local news coverage or when
independently owned media companies
are gobbled up by hedge funds that gut
newsrooms.
And it’s a timely question because
there is a bipartisan provision in the fed-
eral budget reconciliation bill work-
ing its way through Congress that will
give media companies a temporary pay-
roll tax credit to hire and retain journal-
ists. Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden chairs
the Senate Finance Committee that will
have a great deal of say on whether this
provision makes it through to the fi n-
ish line.
Wyden is a co-sponsor of the
bill written by Sen. Maria Cantwell,
D-Wash. Being the son of a prominent
journalist, he is a longtime champion of
a free press. In a recent interview with
the Seattle Times, Wyden responded to
a question about the potential for some
to dislike government helping the press.
He said, “This is
not the government
putting its hand
on certain types
of speech. This is
about generally
empowering local
Heidi Wright journalism in a big
way. By the way,
there are plenty of local journalism out-
lets that span across the political spec-
trum, left, right, center, you name it.”
On the House side, the bill was
co-authored by Rep. Dan Newhouse,
R-Wash., and Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick,
D-Ariz., and is strongly supported by
two key Oregon representatives — Peter
DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer.
For anyone who follows the chal-
lenges of media companies and the
reality of growing news deserts around
the country, this temporary tax credit
known as the Local Journalism Sus-
tainability Act is a welcome relief that
will directly aid news gathering orga-
nizations, including an estimated 113
newsrooms in Oregon. It’s the only
piece — some would say the most
important piece — left of an original
three-part proposal intended to stabilize
and reform an industry upended by the
deadly trio of Google, Facebook and
the pandemic.
The tax credit sunsets in fi ve years,
giving media companies a reasonable
timeframe to build a sustainable busi-
ness model that supports local journal-
ism in the internet age. It also sends a
message to young people that journal-
ism is a career worth pursuing where
there will be jobs available with those
companies that make the successful
transition.
Numerous studies show what hap-
pens in communities where there’s no
professionally trained journalists asking
questions and accurately reporting on
what is happening at a local level: gov-
ernment waste and potential for corrup-
tion by public offi cials increases, voter
turnout drops and communities fi nd
it harder to solve their own problems.
News deserts create democracy deserts,
especially in rural communities.
If you are reading this and want
to help, email our Oregon congres-
sional delegation and let them know
you support keeping the Local Jour-
nalism Sustainability Act temporary
tax credit in the budget reconciliation
package.
Heidi Wright is the COO for EO
Media Group and the publisher of
The Bulletin and serves as treasurer
for America’s Newspapers, an indus-
try group representing more than 1,600
newspapers across the country. Email
her at hwright@eomediagroup.com.
OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Turkey carcass compatibility quiz
T
he holiday turkey carcass trig-
gered the trouble.
The problem at a holiday isn’t
only what to cook and how to cook it,
but what family and friends participate
in after the meal. For instance, I might
wear my Komfort Fit elastic waistband
clothes only to fi nd the host rounded up
bicycles for everyone for an after-dinner
bike marathon. Knowing this, I can pace
myself at the dessert table.
I propose a Compatibility Quiz be
taken before accepting an invitation as
a holiday dinner guest or serving as a
host/hostess. Circle your answers.
After a holiday meal, one expects to
enjoy:
• Vivaldi, Chopin
• TV football game
• Marathon sports event — guests
participate (bike, hike, climb, run, etc.)
If one hears what sounds like a Boe-
ing 747 taking off cross-wind at the
Portland Airport, it’s:
• Uncle Henry, belly up, snoring on
the couch
• Family dogs banned to a back
bedroom
• The Left-Overs, a rock band that
plays with a backdrop of a Sears Crafts-
man Deluxe automotive tool chest in the
garage
If a roar of anguish erupts as though
a biker gang invaded the neighborhood,
the sound came from:
• TV viewers when the opposing
team scored a touchdown
• A nap-deprived 2-year-old who
can’t fi nd blankie and discovers on
his dinner plate a
speck of gravy touch-
ing a green bean
When you see the
word “organ,” you
think of:
• Bach fugue
Jean Ann
• Turkey giblets in
Moultrie
a white plastic bag
What’s a giblet?
• Second baseman for the New York
Mets
• Turkey parts including liver, heart,
gizzard
A gizzard is part of the digestive tract
of turkeys, crocodiles, alligators, earth-
worms and grasshoppers. (A grand-
child and I looked it up on Wikipe-
dia when we weren’t sticking olives on
our fi ngers or dissecting turkey heart
chambers.)
What is done with the giblets?
• Cooked, chopped, and made into
giblet gravy
• Cooked, chopped, and fed to the
dog
• Unopened white bag tossed into
the garbage
After dinner, family and friends:
• Watch football games on TV
• Nap
• Toss around a football in the yard
• Play board games
• Take a 2-mile hike
(Coming from a family of board
game devotees, I found it imperative to
know the host family belonged to the
marathon hikers when off ered a second
helping of pie.)
While dinner clean-up is underway,
you prefer to entertain a:
• Teething tot
• Tantrum-prone toddler
• Surly teen banned from electronics
for the day
• Politically active Aunt Edna push-
ing a petition to ban land mines and
green
bean bake
What grosses you out?
• A kid with olives on each fi nger
passing the bowl of mashed potatoes
• Runny noses
• Uncle Rupert’s dentures sitting on
the TV remote
Leftover turkey should be:
• Eaten at midnight with a side of
congealed dressing, the culinary equiva-
lent of a bowling ball
• Chopped with feline nibbles and
fed to the cat
End of the meal, what to do with the
turkey carcass?
• Boil it into a rich broth to make
soup (Aunt Edna comes from the school
of turkey bone soup)
• Toss it into the garbage
During clean-up the hostess said,
“Throw out the carcass.”
The problem for Aunt Edna surfaced
at airport security. She triggered alarms
when a TSA agent caught her trying to
smuggle in the turkey carcass taped to
her chest.
Jean Ann Moultrie is a Grant
County writer, devotee of turkey bone
soup, and one-time-a-year-marathon
Monopoly player.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
What’s the future of
Blue Mountain Eagle?
To the editor:
No song and dance, or soft lights and
background music, let’s have the straight
and honest truth!
Is it the Eagle’s plan to soon dissolve
and merge the local operation of the
Eagle into a conglomerate of other scat-
tered similar — but diff erent — “local”
news outlets, and the printed page be
eliminated and replaced by “online area
news only”?
In other words, is this “local” paper
about to be swallowed up, digested, and
regurgitated as what amounts to a gen-
eral Eastern Oregon news publication
— one that adds lots of subscriber out-
of-area (and unwanted?) bits and pieces,
but precious little actual local news cov-
erage, other than miscellaneous volun-
teer senior correspondent columns and
such?
Will we be enticed by the lure that
our classifi ed ads will now be read by a
larger — but scattered — readership as
a replacement to the focused and real,
local coverage and subscriber access we
have had so far?
Yeah, we’ve seen it steadily hap-
pening all around the nation — and our
state. Tell us the truth: Is it about to hap-
pen here in Grant County as well?
Gary Davidson
Canyon City
Exercising freedom
not to wear a mask
To the editor:
Regarding a letter to the editor in
the Nov. 10 edition (“Have Consider-
ation for Other People”): Some of us
believe we live in a republic where we
ourselves have the power to choose.
Indeed, when England followed the
“free-thinking” pilgrims to the New
World in order to control/rule them,
these people fought back. Freedom was
very important to them. To some of us,
it still is.
Obviously, that road does not run
both ways with some folks. In other
words, it’s none of your business if I
wear a mask or do not wear one. As
you admit, you mask up and have got-
ten the vaccine plus booster. You are
protected. Why do you insist that I do
the same?
I am not selfi sh when I can put
together the facts and see that we are
faced with not so much of a virus issue
as a people issue. Certain people refuse
to conform to a mandate (not a law,
mind you) that is unconstitutional and
infringes on my right as an American
citizen to choose my own medical free-
dom. I am not stupid, nor am I selfi sh. I
am an American.
Please do continue to mask up if you
choose. That is your right as a citizen
of this country and I will fi ght for your
right to do so. But I will not be badgered
and belittled by close-minded people.
If we stand for nothing, we fall for
anything.
Marsha Christensen
John Day