The Shady Side of Truth

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On Wednesday, I remotely attended a Winthrop Town Council meeting where Ed Zuckerman, selected that evening to be the next town councilmember, referenced an editorial by Methow Valley News Publisher Don Nelson encouraging people to apply for the council seat.

It reminded me to catch up on Mr. Nelson’s editorials, which I did. Mr. Nelson has not shied away from being upfront about where he stands on things locally and nationally. That is his right, especially as publisher, but this week, reading a Jan. 29 editorial about his response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, I would have fallen over if I wasn’t already sitting down.

Writing about Good’s and Pretti’s deaths, which is understandably an emotional topic, he wrote the following:

“There is no other objective conclusion possible, and no supportable argument to the contrary. There is no alternate ‘narrative,’…” 

If Mr. Nelson had merely uttered these words, I would have thought, wow, can you believe he said that? It seems so improbable, it might even be challenged as hearsay.

It is a testament to the times we’re living in that Mr. Nelson published his opinion that “there is no other objective conclusion possible, and no supportable argument to the contrary. There is no alternate ‘narrative.'”

There is always an alternate narrative.

Always.

You may not agree with it and these days, it may seem crazy or kooky to you, but that narrative exists.

Just remember who you see as kooky thinks the same thing about you.

Journalism is exposing a layer again and again to infinity. I focus on information more than facts. Facts are disputed. Information, well, it’s just information. Take it… or not.

Then there is meaning-making. People can have the same information and come up with completely different meanings. It happens all the time.

Mr. Nelson doesn’t feel that way. In the same editorial, he writes, “the truth must be said, shouted, screamed at the top of our lungs, over and over, in every corner of country [sic] including ours, to have a chance of survival….”

If someone proclaims they know the “truth,” take a grain of caution. I think I’m good at what I do, but I’m not all-knowing.

If you’re all-knowing, please contact me directly.

Mr. Nelson is understandably upset by the killing of two civilians over an emotionally charged issue, but Good’s and Pretti’s deaths are a culmination of decades of controversial immigration policy, and that story is a volume, not a sound bite.

I don’t see my role as an arbiter of truth. The best I can do is relay information and document a story line.

I was advised not to criticize MVN. I’m doing it in this case because Mr. Nelson’s words are so egregious, and the implications so extreme, they are hard to ignore.

His words are dangerous for our democracy. If Mr. Nelson believes that the filter of his mind is truth, that is a dangerous place to be as a newspaper publisher.

Words like “there is no other objective conclusion possible” and “there is no alternate ‘narrative'” overlooks almost half our population. The current president received 47% of the vote in Methow Valley, but you wouldn’t know that by what you see around here. Their voices aren’t represented in the community and certainly not in the newspaper.

There is an assumption that everyone is like you.

They’re not.

Everyone knows someone who is livid with the current administration. They are the loudest voices, the norm around here, but if you don’t know someone that supports the current administration, I strongly encourage you to widen your social circle.

If you value community, these people are in your community, They have reasons for feeling the way they do. They have a story to tell, but our newspaper doesn’t tell it. As a result, they live in the shadows.

One person told me he only reads the obituaries. That is not a sign of a healthy newspaper.

Another person, with whom I shared the editorial, told me, “You can’t have a conversation with someone that thinks like that.”

Exactly.

I skim through letters to the editor these days because it’s the same beating drum. For the most part, there is no diversity of thought, and how can there be if the publisher is providing guidelines for what’s acceptable?

If we’re talking about marginalized communities, there is a marginalized community in the Methow Valley.

I’ll go a step farther- I believe the current president was pushed to electoral victory by marginalized communities, and they’re not the ones you instinctively think of. If the liberal side of the aisle can’t see that, they are going to encounter the same political resistance again, and they’re not going to like the results.

Not only are Mr. Nelson’s words detrimental to our community, but also to his staff. Is there room for differences of opinion in his newsroom? With statements like this, I would keep my head down.

Mr. Nelson has made public that he wants to sell the newspaper. Methow Valley needs a newspaper. A conduit for news, opinion, features, announcements, classifieds, rants, raves, advertisements and even drawings by second graders is an important part of our democracy. Research has shown that communities without a healthy press have more corruption than those that do.

It also affects communities in another way- communities without a healthy newspaper, or a newspaper at all, have less competitive races, lower voter turnout and more straight ticket voting.

Show me a community without a healthy press, or a press at all, and I’ll show you a community lacking in information for an informed democracy.

We are lucky to have a newspaper. Two hundred twenty-five counties in the union don’t have any newspaper, and more than half the counties in America have only one newspaper. We are lucky to have two newspapers in just one area of the county.

It does not mean that we will see everything the same way. I see my purpose to inform, not convince. Do I see some things as crazy? Absolutely, but it’s not my decision. It’s never my decision. My job is to present information to the public for them to make their own decisions. I’m motivated by watching democracy at work through an informed public.

The Methow Valley needs a newspaper. I think most of us can agree on that. I can only hope that Mr. Nelson reconsiders his words and his mission.