INSIGHT

By John Gierach Redstone Review

LYONS – I’d just spent a week off the grid at a fish camp on the Alagnak River in Alaska that was a welcome relief from the usual noise of wall-to-wall media, especially since the unwritten law that keeps the peace in fishing camps is that no one talks about religion or politics. That’s a break we should all give ourselves from time to time. Imagine visiting a previously undiscovered country where the fishing is good, the inhabitants are civil and there’s no TV.

But when I got back to the hotel in Anchorage where I’d spend the night before my flight home the next day, I couldn’t help turning on the TV in my room to catch up on the January 6 Hearings. I scrolled down the guide, clicked on CNN and got a blank screen. I tried MSNBC and got the same thing. Then I tried all three networks and also got nothing.

What the hell?

I was about to call the front desk to complain that my TV didn’t work, but then, as the light began to dawn, I tried Fox News and it came in loud and clear.

Oh, that’s right; not only am I back in civilization, but I’m in the red state that spawned Sarah Palin, a fact that’s still hard to ignore. The closest anyone had come to breaking the cardinal rule in camp was when one of the other fishermen joined me on the porch with his morning coffee and asked, “So, can ya see Russia from here?”

Banning the news that doesn’t fit your self-interested version of reality is an old tactic. Banning or burning books, closing newspapers, imprisoning reporters – you name it. All totalitarian regimes try this and it works at first, but eventually the truth – or at least an opposing view – leaks out. Once it passed by word of mouth, later there were mimeograph machines and shortwave radios, and now it leaks out electronically, but it always leaks out somehow.

I’m not a big fan of social media, but its one advantage is that it’s now nearly impossible to hide things for long. They always try, but it’s just too big an octopus for anyone – from a hotel manager to a government – to control all its unruly tentacles. But then media and the people who know how to use it have always been powerful and politicians and journalists have always known it. Back before the Internet, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst warned politicians “Don’t screw around with a guy who buys ink by the barrel.”

But the dark side is that the same sprawling media that brings you verifiable facts and informed opinion is also just as likely to tell you that world governments are secretly run by alien lizard people and that Democrats are cannibals with a sweet tooth for children. I can’t speak to the lizard people, but I can testify that as a lifelong Democrat, I’ve never once been served human flesh, although I understand it resembles pork and is referred to in some places as “long pig.”

I turned off the TV, called Susan to see how things were going at home and got the detailed report on the kind of week the cat had that told me everything else was okay, too. And I eventually got caught up on the news, which amounted to more of what we already knew about the insurrection, the Supreme Court and so on, BREAKING NEWS banners notwithstanding.

Watching the news is an adversarial business. Some of it is nothing more than propaganda and even if you don’t have a passing familiarity with the facts, you can usually spot it by its hysterically self-righteous tone and its moral absolutism: We’re always good; they’re always bad. We’re always right; they’re always wrong. When the world you see on the news looks more simplistic than the rich, colorful and nuanced reality you know, be suspicious.

We weren’t always so glued to the news except in rare circumstances like the Cuban missile crisis or the Watergate Hearings. Most days we had daily newspapers and a half hour of broadcast news in the evenings. The various newsrooms had their own editorial policies, but they agreed on the facts, just not always on what they meant or what should be done about them. You didn’t see one reality on CBS and a completely different one on NBC, so most of us felt we could honestly disagree while still being on the same page.

Furthermore, opinion was always clearly delineated from reporting, both in newspapers and on TV. David Brinkley, an anchor on both NBC and later ABC, ended many broadcasts with little opinion pieces he called homilies. He later collected them into a book he called Everyone has a Right to My Opinion.

Walter Cronkite on CBS – aka “Uncle Walter” and “The most trusted man in

America” – famously almost never offered an opinion, but being human, he sometimes revealed himself. It was said that Cronkite could editorialize by raising an eyebrow. But that was back in the golden age of broadcast news. Now we have advocacy journalism, which is an unlikely hybrid of reporting, opinion and political cheerleading. The facts are accurate and verifiable (I think that because they largely come Gierach from print reporters working for publica tions with stellar reputations) but al though it’s not actually propaganda, it often employs some of the subtler propagandistic tricks. One technique is to start with straight reporting and then segue into an editorial so that opinion and speculation looks like fact. When it’s done well, it’s almost seamless, so that you’d have to go back and watch it again to catch the moment where one thing becomes another. Another trick involves photos. When an opinion journalist shows a picture of someone they favor, they always look dignified and statesmanlike, while with opposition figures they always choose an outtake that makes then look stupid or deranged. It’s the same with quotes. The ones from our side are presented in context in complete sentences, while those by opposition figures are edited down to the isolated phrases that make them look as dumb and wrong as possible. The overall effect is subliminal, but real. I don’t mean you shouldn’t watch or read your chosen news source in an attempt to locate yourself in the world and be a responsible citizen, just that you should do it critically, or as media writer Kurt Carlson put it, “You must always ask yourself, ‘what do I think I know and why do I think I know it?’ ”

Continued from Page 1

Art and music at The Stone Cup

LYONS – Rachel Tallent’s art show will run through the end of August since it’'s been so well received. For more information, see the website at www.thestonecup.com/music-art.

The music starts at 10 a.m and runs until 12 noon. During RockyGrass, July 29 to July 31, and Folks Fest, August 12 to August 15, shows start at 9 or 9:30 a.m. July 15, Friday: Arbour Season July 16, Saturday: Jim Seely July 17, Sunday: TBA July 22, Friday: Denny Driscoll July 23, Saturday: Dechen Hawk July 24, Sunday: Zea Stallings RockyGrass July 29, Friday: James Faulk July 30, Saturday: Steven Hoffman July 31, Sunday: MG Bailey August 1, Monday: MG Bailey August 5, Friday: Denny Driscoll August 6, Saturday: John Shepherd August 7, Sunday: Joe Teichman Folks Festival August 12, Friday: Daniel Ondaro August 13, Saturday: Billy Shaddox August 14, Sunday: Wrenn Van & Friends August 15, Monday: Denny Driscoll

Sandstone Summer Concert Series

LYONS – Lyons Summer Concert takes place Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Sandstone Park on Broadway.

The series is back, now on Wednesday evenings through August 10. Thanks to so many of you who came out to kick off the Sandstone Summer Concerts last week. After checking in with our small, independently owned businesses, the feedback was that Wednesdays is preferred by our local businesses, who continue to establish and grow their roots in Lyons.

We look forward to our partnership with the Lyons Community Foundation which supports this annual 10-week series. Mark your calendar for Wednesdays this summer and reconnect with your neighbors or meet new friends. Don’t miss it. View the summer line up.

Hilltop Guild Bazaar on August 6 in Allenspark

ALLENSPARK – The Hilltop Guild’s Annual Bazaar, which always takes place on the first Saturday in August, will be August 6 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is free and there’s plenty of parking.

“The Allenspark Fire Department offered its Community Room for a traditional blood drive (no bloodmobile) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 6, the same day as the Bazaar,” said Jen Bell president of the guild. The Allenspark Fire Department is located at 14861 Highway 7 at the Allenspark turn-off. Please sign up in advance through Vitalant for blood donations at this location .

Haircuts will be offered by Hair on Wheels at the bazaar. The White Elephant will be open. Fudge, peanut brittle and pies will be sold, and the Guild’s famous homemade jellies will also be available, including dandelion jelly. Live music will be provided by two groups, the Railroad Ramblers and Shazza and Steel.

Lunch will be available for purchase. The Country Kitchen will sell breads, pies, cakes, cookies, and fabulous gourmet sandwiches.

Local and area vendors will be selling jewelry, handicrafts, children’s books, watercolor prints, and wellness teas, and will be offering chair massages. Mary Hunter will have herbal products for sale. There will be repurposed pillows and fiber art, mixed media painting, wood and fabric gift items.

Inside the Kelley House, at 18720 Highway 7, the boutique will offer embroidered tea towels, felt pins, a wide variety of coasters, and hand-woven items from scarves to place mats.

The weavers have been working all year making rugs, totes, shoelaces, shawls, and more scarves. In fact, if you want to see a weaver at work and learn how to weave, come to the Bazaar on August 6. For more information, call 303-747-2001.

John Gierach is an outdoor and fly fishing writer who writes books and columns for magazines including a regular column for Trout Magazine. His books include Trout Bum, Sex Death and Fly fishing, and Still Life with Brook Trout. He has won seven first place awards from the Colorado Press Association for his columns in the Redstone Review. His latest book, All the Time in the World, will be released in June 2023 and will be available at book stores and fly fishing shops everywhere including South Creek Ltd. on Main Street in Lyons.

4th Ave. pedestrian bridge update

LYONS – There was a conflict with the proposed placement of the caisson and the existing retaining wall on the south bank, so the engineering team decided to move the bridge 3-feet south to avoid the retaining wall. Two caissons were poured but one of the caissons did not meet specifications, as there was an anomaly in the concrete. Town staff, the contractor, and construction manager have been working with the structural engineers to determine the best way forward for a new caisson.

Both staff and the contractor are waiting on new direction and design from the engineers. They have enough information to start work on the south side, but are waiting on the driller’s availability, as well as delays of ordered material.

In the meantime, the contractor has completed the sidewalk work up to the bridge approaches, along with some trail work. Completion is expected in late summer.

Black Bear Hole and 2nd Avenue trailhead

LYONS – Work continues at Black Bear Hole and the 2nd Ave Trailhead. Landscaping materials and plantings were placed last week-

Continue Briefs on Page 10