Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2015)
OPINION A4 HERMISTONHERALD.COM SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2015 EDITORIAL • COMMENTARY • LETTERS HermistonHerald VOLUME 109 ɿ NUMBER 36 -(66,&$.(//(5 EDITOR MNHOOHU#KHUPLVWRQKHUDOGFRP 541-564-4533 6$0%$5%(( 6($1+$57 .,0/$3/$17 JEANNE JEWETT SPORTS REPORTER sbarbee@hermistonherald.com 541-564-4542 MULTI-MEDIA CONSULTANT NODSODQW#KHUPLVWRQKHUDOGFRP 541-564-4530 REPORTER smhart@hermistonherald.com 541-564-4534 MULTI-MEDIA CONSULTANT jjewett@hermistonherald.com 541-564-4531 To contact the Hermiston Herald for news, advertising or subscription information: • call 541-567-6457 • e-mail info@hermistonherald.com • VWRSE\RXURI¿FHVDW(0DLQ6W • visit us online at: www.hermistonherald.com ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES 'HOLYHUHGE\FDUULHUDQGPDLO:HGQHVGD\VDQG6DWXUGD\V ,QVLGH8PDWLOOD0RUURZFRXQWLHV ......................................................................................... $42.65 2XWVLGH8PDWLOOD0RUURZFRXQWLHV ...................................................................................... $53.90 7KH+HUPLVWRQ+HUDOG8636,661LVSXEOLVKHGWZLFHZHHNO\DW+HUPLVWRQ +HUDOG(0DLQ6W+HUPLVWRQ25)$;3HULRGLFDO SRVWDJHSDLGDW+HUPLVWRQ253RVWPDVWHUVHQGDGGUHVVFKDQJHVWR+HUPLVWRQ+HUDOG (0DLQ6W+HUPLVWRQ25 3ULQWHGRQ recycled $PHPEHURIWKH(20HGLD*URXS&RS\ULJKW newsprint TV brain L et’s open with clarity — I am a grammar nazi. A language snob. A spelling pedant. One of my mottos is “by their subject/object agreement ye shall know them!” Which is odd, given that I am known to type words like “gonna” and “shoulda,” will gleefully toss an incorrectly placed “ain’t” into a sentence, and I’m known to use lolcat speech — “I cn haz cheezburger? kthxbai!” It’s not hypocrisy. The difference is that I’m knowingly and intentionally doing it, whereas too many people today do not know the difference, or, since proper language use requires some attention to detail, maybe it just indicates OCD on my part and my occasional digressions are simply a plea for help from a disordered mind. Nah. So just exactly what is Creasing off on this time, you say? Glad you asked — questions like that help me write the column. I am here to suggest that poor language use is a sign of poor thinking, and it’s the fault of how television trained that thinking. While every generation complains about the deteriorating values of the subsequent generation, the devolution of language use is a symptom of deeper problems. It’s not just a matter of the occasional “their” for “there,” or the rogue apostrophes, or the use of “they” as a singular pronoun, which grates on my soul. Poor language use goes hand-in-hand with poor thinking habits. And where did poor thinking habits come from? Not using the brain, of course. Kids formerly were told “get away from that TV and go open a book!” TV is marginally acceptable decent for entertainment (commercial breaks and time limits interfere with protracted storylines and chains of thought), but it’s not well suited to holding attention on an idea. Bright DQGÀDVK\VWRU\WHOOLQJ sure. Detailed overview of the intricacies of Austrian economics versus Keynesian? Snooooooooze. Even what passes for “information” these days seems more geared toward entertainment, what with yelling and hollering being the norm. TV does not provide much focus or Letters Policy 7+20$6&5($6,1* OFF THE BENCH Herald columnist need long protracted linear thought — which produces a TV Brain that doesn’t, either. Advanced technology hasn’t helped the TV Brain. Today there are Twitters and tweets and meerkats and periscopes and Facebooks, all of which rely on short and snappy sentences — but no depth. How can you have a substantive structural analysis of the national UDPL¿FDWLRQVRI.LQJY Burwell in 140 characters? For that matter, can you even explain King v. Burwell in 140 characters? “King sz no fed credit $$ for states w/o insurance exchanges Obamacare sux, gov says can 2 hv credits words on paper mean nothing! LOLZ@gov.” Maybe all readers under 25 will now take a sudden keen interest in King v. Burwell. As the information stream has gotten wider, deeper and faster, people’s thinking has contracted. Maybe it’s the sheer weight of what’s coming at them. It’s easier to see what the Kardashians are doing than to ponder the Oregon implications of Jackson v. San Francisco. This is not just “regular folks,” either. Read commentary by state and national legislators — it can be just as thoughtless. As part of my speech class I try to teach a bit of critical thinking, starting with nothing more exciting than asking “why?” Yet too often I read legislator’s quotes that are nothing more than rehashes of what someone else said, rather than demonstrations of independent thought. Are poor language use and TV Brain connected? I’m not completely sure, but maybe there oughta be a law making kids crack open a book more often. That’s just the “sorta” opinion of an opinionated guy. Share your opinions in response! Letters to the editor or by email to hermistonherald offthebench@gmail.com. Names of the terminally shy will be withheld on request. — Thomas Creasing is a Hermiston resident, municipal court judge and Herald columnist The Hermiston Herald welcomes original letters for publication on public issues and public policies. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. Phone numbers will not be published. Letters may be mailed to the Hermiston Herald, 333 E. Main, Hermiston, OR, 97838; or emailed to editor@hermistonherald.com We want you like us, but we need you to need us and read us W hen we announced changes coming to the Hermiston Herald on July 1, we knew there would be questions and there would likely be complaints. After all, one of the big changes we will be making is delivering the print paper only on Wednesday. The Saturday print paper is going away. We have no plans to give readers less news, but we are going to change how we delivery it and package it. It’s a change we have to make. Here’s why. The cold fact is that the Hermiston Herald, ZLWKWKHH[LVWLQJVWDI¿QJ level and delivery frequency we have had cost us more money to produce than we brought in this year. We are fortunate that the family owners of EO Media Group are news people who love newspapers. They are proud that the Herald has more than 100 years of history in this community and want it to have many more years, decades and — if possible — centuries of providing news to readers and a means for advertisers to reach those readers. When my family moved to the area in 1973, Hermiston had a population of about 5,000 people. Later in life, when I left Hermiston in 1992 after stints as a reporter for the East Oregonian and reporter and editor of the Hermiston Herald, Hermiston had grown to about 10,700 people. Today it is home to more than 17,000 people. The city has grown 60 percent since 1992 and 250 percent since the early 1970s. If the Herald’s readership kept pace with the city’s growth, this would be a very *$5</:(67 HERMISTON HERALD different conversation and publication. But the Herald subscriber numbers shrank. To honor the community’s history, and ensure a future, we need to do something, and likely several somethings, differently. People have been telling us, in absentia, that they just don’t need the Herald like they once did. We are going to try to reverse that trend, but we are going to need your help. In the coming months, we need you to tell us what you do like and don’t like, about what is in the Herald or what isn’t there. And we are going to be asking members of the community to contribute to the things we publish in print and post online in various ways. If you are reading this in print or online, we want to know what is most important to you and least important to you about how we spend our time and space. There are some things we know we have to do and some things we think we know, and a whole lot of things where we really need information and help. We know we can know longer sustain printing two editions a week at a time when generations in our community get their news and information on smartphones, tablets and computers. We will become, in essence, a daily news service, publishing information digitally at OHDVW¿YHGD\VDZHHN sometimes six and often seven. And we will print a newspaper once a week, too. So you will have many options for KRZDQGZKHUHWR¿QG news of our community. That effort has already started. We are now updating HermistonHerald.com DWOHDVW¿YHGD\VD week. We are sending out email newsletters ZLWKXSGDWHV¿YHGD\V a week. We are posting links to our stories and interacting with readers/ IDQVDWOHDVW¿YHGD\VD week on Facebook and through Twitter. We may add other social media services too if that EHQH¿WVHQRXJKRI\RX Another key piece of the puzzle is that we are going to work hard to improve our partnership with our sister paper, the East Oregonian, to make the best use of our local people. Our mission is, and will be, to cover Umatilla and Morrow counties the best we can with the people we have. Now it is not unusual to see two reporters from our company — one representing the Follow the Herald Keep up with news, community event and the changing Hermis- ton Herald online through the following resources: Website: www.HermistonHerald.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/HermistonHerald Twitter: @HermistonHerald and for sports follow @hheraldsports Email newsletter and e-Edition: Sign up for our free email newsletter on our website and print subscribers can log into our website to see or digital e-Edition at www.HermistonHeraldcom. Follow incoming editor Gary West on Twitter at @GaryLWest, follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/journalist.glwest or email him at gwest@hermistonherald.com Hermiston Herald and one representing the East Oregonian — attending the same event or meeting and writing at least two separate stories from the same set of facts and circumstances. We can no longer afford to do that. We want to use our reporters’ WLPHHI¿FLHQWO\WREULQJ more news to you. We need to get to more events and more places more often. We are going to cover the community as best we can, get the stories written, then decide how to use them online and in print with the various news products we have at our disposal to get news to you. In an ideal world, we would love you to pay to subscribe to both the East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald, and/ or pay to buy ads in both. But most people in our community do not subscribe to both. Most don’t subscribe to either paper. So we won’t pretend we are competing with the East Oregonian because we aren’t. We are partners. We are already competing with your job, TV news, cable TV, 1HWÀL[IDPLO\VSRUWV community events and life for your time. We don’t need to compete with ourselves, too. We will do our best to make the investment of time and money you make with us worthwhile. We ask for your patience while we do some remodeling. And if you haven’t read the Herald or the EO in a while — or ever — we ask that you check in with us from time to time and see what’s new. — Gary L. West will be editor of the Hermiston Herald beginning July 1 and Hermiston editor for the East Oregonian ELECTED OFFICIALS STATE District 29: Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Umatilla Co., 900 Court St. N.E., S-423, Salem, OR 97301, 503-986- 1729. 101 S.W. Third St., Pendleton, OR 97801 (541) 278-1396. E-mail: ssen.billhansell@state.or.us. District 30: Sen. Ted Ferrio- li, R-John Day; 900 Court St. N.E., S-223 Salem, OR 97301, 503-986- 1950. 750 W. Main, John Day, OR 97845, (541) 575-2321. E-mail: ferr- ioli.sen@state.or.us. District 58: Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Pendleton; 900 Court St. N.E., H-480, Salem, OR 97301, 503-986- 1458. E-mail: rep.gregbarrento@ state.or.us. Website: http://www.ore- gonlegislature.gov/barreto District 57: Rep. Greg Smith, R-Morrow, 900 Court St. N.E., H-280, Salem, OR 97301, 503-986- 1457. P.O. Box 215, Heppner, OR 97836, (541) 676-5154. E-mail: smith.g.rep@state.or.us. FEDERAL U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden Sac Annex Building, 105 Fir St., No. 201, La Grande, OR 97850; (541) 962-7691. E-mail: kath- leen_cathey@wyden.senate.gov; (Kathleen Cathey, community repre- sentative); 717 Hart Building, Wash- ington, D.C. 20510, (202) 224-5244. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley One World Trade Center, 121 SW Salmon Street, Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; (503) 326-3386; Dirksen 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ 6'%% Washington, D.C. 20510. (202) 224- 3753. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (2nd District) 843 E. Main St., Suite 400, Med- ford, OR 97504, (541) 776-4646,
