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PAGE 4A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
Kellyanne Conway
and the problem
with cable news
Kellyanne Conway, counselor/advisor to
President Trump and purveyor of “alternative
facts,” has repeatedly proven that when invited
on cable and network news shows, she will spew
fiction — in the form of misleading statements, false
accusations and flat-out lies — to defend the presi
dent at all costs.
So why do networks like CNN continue to give
her such a big platform?
Unfortunately, it appears for
confrontation, clicks and rat
ings.
Conway’s latest bumbling
performance came Sunday
morning on CNN’s “State
of the Union” program. At
the end of the 15-minute seg
ment, host Dana Bash asked
Conway about her husband’s
recent string of tweets that
have been critical of the pres
ident.
Conway and Bash got into
about a five-minute back-and-forth over the appro
priateness of the question, an exchange in which
Conway ridiculously tried to play the role of victim
of a sexist double-standard.
One specific posting Bash asked about was
George Conway’s retweet of a tweet by a CNN
reporter last month taking the president to task for
undermining aides.
“This is why officials are so hesitant to speak for
Trump. He says one thing, then does the oppo
site,” the reporter wrote. “He says he’s happy with
(former national security advisor H.R.) McMaster,
they defend him, then he fires him a week later. He
says he’ll sign the (budget) bill, they publicly say
as much, then he tweets he’s considering a veto.”
“So true. It’s absurd.” George Conway wrote in his
re-tweet. “Which is why people are banging down
the doors to be his (communications) director.”
The tweet was one of over 100 the last couple
of months that have been directed against the
president — the man his wife works for — and his
actions.
Another one pushed back against the president’s
assertion after the FBI raid on Trump lawyer
Michael Cohen’s office that “Attorney-client privi
lege is dead!”
“No, there is a crime fraud exception to the
attorney-client privilege, as there has been for cen
turies,” George Conway wrote in response to the
president’s tweet.
According to reports, George has deleted many
of his tweets, but he hasn’t stopped directly or indi
rectly criticizing his wife’s boss.
Sunday morning, he retweeted a photo of former
presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George
W. Bush, Barack Obama, their wives and First
Lady Melania Trump at Barbara Bush’s memorial
service with the original tweeter’s message: “Each
president in this photo did things I disagreed with
politically. Quite a lot, in fact, for most of them.
And yet I never doubted that every single one of
them acted based on core values, including love
of country — not, primarily, love of self.” For the
record, Kellyanne, in her “State of the Union”
appearance, pushed back against the notion that
Trump is all about himself while speaking of his
affinity for Cohen.
Certainly, George and Kellyanne Conway are
allowed to have differing political opinions, support
different candidates and publicly voice their opin
ions about them.
While not necessary for that particular interview,
Bash’s question was fair-game. It’s hard to believe
that with a president and whole culture so tied to
social media, she hasn’t been asked about her
husband’s tweets by the president and others in
the administration.
If I posted critical things on Twitter and Facebook
about the law firm my wife works for, or she post
ed critical things on Twitter and Facebook about
MainStreet Newspapers, we both would probably
take a little heat from our bosses. And we are
employed with private companies, not the White
House.
The problem, though, is the result of Bash’s
question was predictable: Another outburst from
Conway and another opportunity to weave the
false, “It’s us against the media, and the media is
evil” narrative.
Bash, who I respect, but whose claim the ques
tion was meant in a light-hearted way came off as
disingenuous, should have recognized this. But
maybe she and/or the show and network produc
ers didn’t care.
It’s telling that Sunday afternoon, at the top of
the CNN website, sat the video clip of the interview
with the headline, “Kellyanne Conway to Dana
Bash: OK, you went there.” Missing was more
prominent placement of necessary rebuttals to
erroneous statements she continues to spout.
And this is the problem with much of cable news
today: They have become too much about enter
tainment, ratings and clicks, not enough about
journalism for the people who won’t subscribe to
the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street
Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, etc.
See Thompson on Page 5A
f
scott
thompson
How do you choose between
these two candidates?
When it comes to the issues that
really move Democratic voters, it’s
hard to see any daylight between
the two candidates fighting for the
party’s nomination in the Democratic
primary.
Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans
are both former legislators who share
the same first name and a profession
al background as lawyers.
Both came from modest
backgrounds. Abrams grew
up as part of a large family
in Gulfport, Miss, that later
moved to Georgia. With the
help of student loans, she
was able to get a bache
lor’s degree from Spelman,
a master’s degree from the
University of Texas and a
law degree from Yale.
Evans had a hardscrabble
upbringing in Ringgold —
in her words, living in 16
homes during her first 18
years and “always one step ahead of
a bill collector.”
Because of the HOPE scholarship,
she was the first member of her
family to attend college and earned
bachelor’s and law degrees at the
University of Georgia.
The one real distinction between
them is their race: Abrams is black
and Evans is white.
Abrams and Evans were both
hard-working lawmakers who fought
for maintaining (in Abrams’ case)
or even expanding (in Evans’ case)
the sacred HOPE college scholarship
program.
When the House of Representatives
was debating a bill in the 2012 session
that would prohibit abortions after 20
weeks, Evans was nine months preg
nant and on the verge of delivering
her daughter, Ashley.
She made an emotional videotaped
statement that was played in place
of a floor speech, pleading with her
fellow lawmakers not to restrict a
woman’s right to choose.
And yet, when Planned Parenthood
Southeast made their endorsement
in the governor’s race, they ignored
Evans and gave their backing to
Stacey Abrams.
They mentioned Abrams’ service
on the board of NARAL Pro-Choice
Georgia and her free legal work for
women seeking abortions.
But they also noted Abrams’ oppo
sition to the same 20-week abortion
ban that Evans so eloquently spoke
against as a legislator.
That’s the way it’s gone with most
of the endorsements from the major
organizations.
You have two candidates who have
sincerely fought the good fight on
the issues that matter most to these
groups. In many instances, the orga
nizations would note that the two
candidates were so well qualified that
that they couldn’t make a choice and
would offer their support to both of
them.
But Abrams has been the one to
win the bulk of these endorsements
from organizations like the Georgia
Write a Letter to the Editor:
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tom
crawford
Association of Educators and the
gay rights advocacy group, Georgia
Equality.
Jeff Graham, Georgia Equality’s
executive director, pointed to the one
real difference that seems to divide
the campaigns of Abrams and Evans:
the paths they see to a potential vic
tory in November.
Abrams has been trying to sign
up and motivate a more
diverse group of new vot
ers who typically don’t
vote or have rarely voted
in past elections. Evans, on
the other hand, believes
there are votes that can be
harvested by going after
the more moderate inde
pendents or those who are
disaffected Donald Trump
voters that might be per
suaded to come back to a
Democrat.
It’s a strategy of persuad
ing those who don’t vote versus those
who do vote but might be lured to the
other side.
“Not only is she exceptionally
strong on LGBTQ issues, I believe she
(Abrams) has an effective strategy to
win in November,” Graham said.
The organizations who have been
issuing these endorsements insist
that they underwent a “thorough pro
cess” in evaluating the two candi
dates before making a decision.
Given the fact that Abrams and
Evans are well-qualified candidates
who have nearly identical positions
on issues that matter to these groups,
you wonder how thorough that pro
cess really was.
So far, neither campaign seems to
have made much of a dent among the
target audience with their approach.
A poll conducted by the University
of Georgia’s School of Public and
International Affairs for Atlanta media
outlets indicated that 52 percent of
likely Democratic voters are still
undecided less than a month before
the primary. About 33 percent of
those surveyed said they supported
Abrams, while 15 percent are backing
Evans. Neither candidate is close to a
majority, so they both have plenty of
room to grow.
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news
service at gareport.com that reports
on state government and politics.
He can be reached at tcrawford@
gareport.com.
The Barrow News-Journal
Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
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School budgets
about way
more than
money
School budget season is upon us in Barrow
and it will bring all the usual themes: How
much should teachers be paid; should senior
citizens be exempt from school taxes; why
do school districts put so much money into
non-classroom activities?
The first budget presentation of the year
was last week at the
Barrow County school
board. It provided
ample evidence of
that “non-classroom”
money.
Those have sensi
ble answers, although
some folks may not
want to hear them. We
will do a lot of budget
stories between now
and June.
Luckily I spent an
earlier portion of the
day seeing the results of students’ work. In
one instance, I was overwhelmed by art in the
annual fine arts show. In a second, I watched
students whiz through an “engine building”
practice. The art combined a little bit of every
thing — music, math, science, literature, big
ideas. The enginebuilding was a whirlwind
of activity by a group of students “who have to
talk to each other,” instructor Michelle Beck
repeated like a mantra.
Back to the budget, teachers should be paid
like doctors and lawyers — if we believe what
we say. We say and our political candidates
say much like a mantra, that children are our
future. If that is the case, it would be difficult
to overpay.
The problem is that most of us do not make
what lawyers and doctors make. Most teachers
in this area make about the median income.
Paying dramatically better is a tough sell when
the folks who pay the bills may not make as
much as teachers now.
Senior citizens, and I am one, should not be
exempt from paying school taxes. Certainly
we have paid them all our adult lives — and
we should. Schools are a foundation of our
society They have to be supported.
To paraphrase a cliche, taxes are the rent we
pay for being here.
As my wife would say we want those kids to
be educated. They are the ones who will be
counting our medications and taking care of
us in our old age.
A large focus of school systems today is on
security and safety. That costs money. School
resource officers and mental health training
and counselors are not cheap.
Lynn Stevens, vice chair of the Barrow BOE,
is fond of saying the public expects schools to
do everything so they might as well provide
mental health services. She is being a bit sar
castic, but think about changes in society in
the past decade.
Schools are the focus of more and more
services. Witness the food pregrams, where
some schools provide free breakfast and
lunch and then give kids backpacks with kid
sized servings for the weekend so they won’t
be hungry. At least two board members in
Barrow have said more money should be
directed toward kids’ safety even if that means
taking it from other services.
Please notice I have written nearly 500words
and have yet to talk about curriculum (teach
ers’ salaries certainly are part of that), technol
ogy or professional training.
Schools are expected to train kids to be
ready for work or to college for additional train
ing and to be “collaborative.” That big word
means talk to one another regularly.
In the best schools, kids learn to make
connections between subjects — music and
science being among my favorites.
Barrow recently agreed to “put on the table”
—give the public time to review—four potential
textbooks for Advanced Placement classes.
Some districts have drastically cut the number
of texts bought. They get material electronically
from the internet. Some assign teachers to cre
ate texts and lesson plans without texts.
“Critical thinking” is one of the buzzwords
in education these days. Near as I can tell, it
is largely what a liberal arts education was 30
or 40 years ago — a broad, diverse knowledge
base and how best to make connections
among those topics to reach conclusions and
resolve problems.
Budgets seldom raise these questions, but
they are educational. The problems arise
when other things, like being hungry or dys
functional families or mental health problems,
get in the way.
Ron Bridgeman is a reporter for Mainstreet
News. Send email to him at ron@mainstreet-
news.com.