This is Viewpoints for Thursday, August 18, 2016

Two recent letters

On Aug. 11, John Brogden accused previous letter writer Frank Gadbois of trying to “rewrite history by proclaiming it was ‘actually George W. Bush’ who signed an agreement forcing us out of Iraq that Obama had to honor.” In fact, on Dec. 14, 2008, Bush signed a Status of Forces Agreement requiring that all U.S. combat forces be completely out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011, and the last U.S. troops left, under Obama’s watch, on Dec. 18, 2011.

On Aug. 12, Gilbert Held wrote that “Hillary has a bad habit of not telling the truth, while Trump … doesn’t lie about anything.” Actually, the independent fact-checking website PolitiFact found that 27 percent of Clinton’s statements that it looked into were mostly false or worse, compared with 70 percent of Trump’s, while 2 percent of Clinton’s statements that it checked were egregious “pants on fire” lies compared with 19 percent of Trump’s. Similarly, The Washington Post Fact-Checker awarded its worst ranking, “Four Pinocchios,” to 16 percent of Clinton’s statements that it reviewed versus 64 percent of Trump’s. Thomas M. Wells, Trump’s former lawyer, says “The man lies all the time,” and Tony Schwartz, the co-author of Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal,” says “Lying is second nature to him.” (This information was neatly laid out in a recent column by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times.)

The Telegraph would have performed a great journalistic service if it had run editor’s notes following those letters, pointing out the facts. The newspaper does run such notes occasionally, elaborating on or correcting statements by letter writers, but not nearly often enough. A third recent example is the Aug. 14 letter asking, “Why doesn’t someone tell the public that their vote does not count in the presidential election,” because “The Electoral College consists of 539 voters.” A simple note pointing out that the public elects the Electoral College could have enlightened that writer and other readers similarly ignorant.

This all boils down to a question of journalistic responsibility, which subdivides into questions of journalistic ethics and journalistic capacity. Obviously The Telegraph, especially with a staff drastically shrunken from what it once was, cannot painstakingly research every statement made by every letter writer. But is it the newspaper’s policy not only to let its letter writers say anything, even things that are blatantly and demonstrably false, but also to make no attempt to set the record straight? If so, this is a recipe for the propagation and perpetuation of falsehood, which is not what the founders had in mind when they enshrined the profession of journalism in the First Amendment.

Perhaps the editorial page editor can address these matters in one of his Sunday columns.

David Mann, Macon

No kid’s stuff

Recent local media coverage of the state committee meeting in Warner Robins on saving our bases. It was actually a new Georgia House of Representatives committee whose purpose is do something to protect our military bases. During the last base realignment commission, former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss told attendees, our state Legislature did not get involved at all.

Local, regional and state apathy about the permanence of Robins Air Force Base is the main impediment to our base’s survival after a BRAC. Too many citizens just assume our base will always be here. Most know little if anything about the all-important issue of encroachment. It is only 90 percent solved, and that is not good news.

Productivity on our base has dropped since the last BRAC from 98 percent to 48 percent but local media have stated that the base union, the AFGE, have drastically improved maintenance productivity. Three cheers for this patriotic, progressive labor union that gladly works with base management to improve maintenance productivity in safer ways as well.

The next BRAC is coming in a couple of years. The USAF has lot of excess capacity and our Congress is going to try to reduce it and spend more on weapons systems. That’s what Chambliss says, and we all must heed what he is telling us. If we don’t, Central Georgia will suffer an economic meltdown the likes of which will make 2008 seem like kid’s stuff! No kidding, this is for real.

Out-trumped Trump

I want to thank Michael Snipes for demonstrating my point in his response to the Khan letter. He spent the vast majority of the letter on Khan rather than on Khan’s main points, as I predicted Trump’s supporters would do. Even his points on Khan are interesting. Does Snipes know how much immigration work Khan does? The EB5 program may or may not overall help in jobs, but does he have any proof that anyone Khan helped get a visa did not help create jobs in America? Who cares if Khan is 60 years old? Many lawyers do not go to court.

For the record, Trump does outsource most of his products and has hired foreign full-time workers to build his buildings. Khan never said Donald Trump has never read the Constitution. He simply out-trumped Trump, who loves to ask implicitly negative questions about people and then say he never said anything. Khan just asked a question. I think a well-used technique since a little before the question Trump did not know how many articles are in the Constitution and had advocated positions which many believe are unconstitutional. The real question is, are the facts stated by Khan that led up to the question true? Snipes never refuted them.

Bid process

It is outrageous that Macon-Bibb County Commissioners would award Allsouth Tubing with the Amerson River Park concession for tubing, canoeing and kayaking on the Ocmulgee River. It appears the only reason the commissioners and mayor are rallying around Allsouth is because of money. A child died because of the conduct of the owners of Allsouth, who have now said everything is just fine, and therefore they should be rewarded with the Amerson contract.

Commissioners Gary Bechtel, Mallory Jones and Elaine Lucas contend they are afraid Allsouth will sue the county if Ocmulgee Outdoor Expeditions is given the concession. Although I am not a lawyer, it is my understanding there is no contract until the commission as a whole votes. This smacks of sheer greed with no respect for what is best for the citizens of this community.

This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Thursday, August 18, 2016."