Opinion/Engagement Editor Jon Alexander [ 208-735-3246 • jalexander@magicvalley.com ]
• Sunday, March 15, 2015
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
The Consequences of Photographing Death
E OPINION
The nuclear waste debate is heating up • C2 GUEST COLUMN
To Govern or Obstruct T he American people used their votes last year to demonstrate a strong objection to gridlock while giving a modest endorsement to the direction Congressional Republicans offered as an alternative to Democrat policies in Washington. Their confidence, however, was conditional on an expectation that Republicans would work aggressively to move our country forward. Unfortunately, too many of my colleagues in Congress see the election much differently. They view gridlock and obstructionism as a means to appease the politically pure and point fingers at anyone who seeks a different solution. While I agree with my colleagues on the conservative principles in this debate, I’d rather be advancing solutions to stop the President’s overreaching policies and putting forward Republican answers that thwart the Administration’s ability to rule from the executive branch. Instead, a faction of my Republican colleagues see obstructionist tactics like shutting down the government, or one of its most important agencies, as just another tool in the construction of a manufactured crises. This small segment of Republicans voted to shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a vote two weeks ago at the deadline – and they represent the most irresponsible, unrealistic, and ineffective segment of our Republican caucus. Even worse, they’re imposing a losing strategy while we are actually winning in the courts – the legitimate, and constitutional, venue for resolving disputes between the executive and legislative branches. These members have no credible policy proposals to stop the president’s unlawful actions. Instead, they hold our national security hostage with shutdown threats and then label any member who opposes their strategy as “capitulating” to the president. They represent a segment of our caucus that would rather shut down the government than show the American people we can actually govern. They represent a segment of our caucus that would preach border security while defunding border patrol.
Mike Simpson
U.S. House
They represent a segment of our caucus that defies the Constitution while preaching a strict adherence to its very principles. They represent a segment of our caucus that wrongly thought a government shutdown would spell the end of Obamacare. They got their shutdown. But we still have Obamacare. The majority of the Republican caucus has given ample opportunities for this loud minority to play-out their strategy. However, this small faction has failed to achieve any conservative victories and led our party so far astray that the Democrats have been able to exert influence in the absence of a united Republican party. My pro-shutdown colleagues are the same folks who pushed for immigration reform only to abandon the notion – leaving the American people on hold with a broken system, ineffective border, and overreaching President looking for any excuse to write executive actions. My pro-shutdown colleagues project Constitutional principles but they’re conveniently forgetting their own Constitutional responsibilities to fund the U.S. Government and, “provide for the common defense.” My pro-shutdown colleagues supported John Boehner for Speaker, before opposing him, then supporting him again, and now criticizing him. By undermining Republican leadership at every turn, the pro-shutdown minority has compromised our ability to pass conservative priorities that focuses on governing efficiently and effectively. The truth is my Republican colleagues and I have a critical and extremely short window of time to prove to the American people that we can govern responsibly. This brief window is our chance to demonstrate to the American people that they should look to a Republican as the next President of the United States. It’s also our chance to show that we prefer the Ronald Reagan model of taking 70-80 percent of what we can get — and then fighting united to get the rest in the future.
A faction of Republicans see obstructionist tactics like shutting down the government as just another tool in the construction of a manufactured crises.
thics in news photography have come a long way since the 1930s, when police sometimes invited photojournalists into crime scenes to take pictures of the deceased. These days, photographers rarely have that kind of access, and reputable newspapers long ago stopped publishing sensational gruesome photos just to sell papers. But images of dead people sometimes still make the news, as they should. It happened Tuesday in the Times-News. Bryan Turner, 32, traveled to Twin Falls from New York City to BASE jump off the Perrine Bridge. He jumped about noon Monday. Witnesses said the chute never opened. In the eight-paragraph story about the incident, four of the paragraphs described efforts by fellow BASE jumpers and paramedics to save his life. Nearby kayakers who pulled
Matt Christensen Editor
Turner from the river performed CPR until professional rescuers arrived. Paramedics took over and continued to administer CPR for 30 minutes before Turner was flown out of the canyon in a medical helicopter. Even then, paramedics were still administering oxygen and an IV. To me, the story and photos we published weren’t so much about Turner’s death but the incredible attempt to save his life. Still, I wasn’t surprised to see readers complain when we posted photos at Magicvalley.com. One reader insisted we pull the images from the website. Another called us “tacky and insensitive.” It’s up to you to determine whether the photographs were distasteful
– we all have different sensibilities when it comes to gauging offensiveness. But our approach in publishing them was far from insensitive. Chief photographer Drew Nash took about 100 photographs at the bridge that day. He reviewed every single one and narrowed them to 40 images that were edited. Ultimately, we published two in print and 12 online. Editors and photographers work together to select the images that best tell the story. In this case, it would have been impossible to tell the truth of what happened at the canyon without including Turner in the photos. Yet Nash’s photojournalism was far from macabre. There were no closeups of Turner. Rather, Nash’s photography told the story of the rescue. All told, the published images were reviewed by three editors, including me. When one reader called for us to pull the photos, we
reviewed them again and I asked Publisher Travis Quast for his opinion. In the end, we all agreed publishing the photos was necessary. They told the story, they told the truth, and not in a way that exploited Turner or sensationalized a tragedy. We make no guarantees that every image or story in the Times-News will make you feel good. Our job is to report what happened, and sometimes the truth is painful, even haunting. In a previous newspaper gig, I once wrote a similar column about why we published unsettling photos, images of a fatal car crash in that case. I’ll end this piece the same way: Our hearts go out to the deceased’s family and friends. I hope that after seeing our photography, yours do too.
Christensen is editor of the Times-News. Reach him at 208-735-3255 and mchristensen@ magicvalley.com.
OUR VIEW
Leaving is NOT an Option Lawmakers must stay until work is done
M
arch 27. That’s the date state lawmakers plan to go home. And, like high school seniors staring down graduation, the arbitrary deadline is a recipe for do-nothing failure. The promises gushed throughout last year’s campaign season. Education is a priority, the Republican leadership sang in a capella with Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. Idaho needs $250 million for its roads, they told would-be voters at whistle stops throughout the state. Both are true. But it’s becoming increasingly obvious that, thanks to a fractured GOP, all the promises were bogus. The career ladder proposal — which would incrementally boost teachers’ pay over the next five years — has already been gutted thanks to taxaverse backbench conservatives. The boosted minimum pay level is again hovering somewhere between fast food manager and municipal account clerk. It’s the cost in the out-years, leadership says, that’s scaring off the right-wing base. Paying Idaho’s teachers another $50 million in three or four years is too much for the Legislature’s vote-no contingent, whose primary function is to wage divisive battles against non-existent culture wars. Only state Sen. Jeff Siddoway, chairman of the upper house’s Local Government and Taxation Committee, had the guts to challenge his caucus’ fringe and their corporate paymasters. Siddoway pledged to stand between any tax cuts unless teacher pay reached $40,000. He took heat from one of Idaho’s most powerful lobbies, Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, but stood by his guns. At this point, Siddoway’s committee has backdoored him on early, minor tax bills. But his resolve should be an inspiration to his colleagues. Siddoway gets it. Too many of his colleagues, however, suffer from the dogmatic tax cut obsession that’s eroded Idaho’s schools. Others are simply terrified of speaking out against the firebrands. So, with less than two weeks left on the leadership’s arbitrary deadline, the career ladder languishes in committee. The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, waiting for the career
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS FILE PHOTO
A view of the House of Representatives during a legislature session at the Idaho Capitol on March 27, 2013, in Boise.
ladder, has stalled the budget process. And there’s no indication that a grand deal is in place. A cop-out half measure, as lawmakers look to head home and relax, looks to be brewing. Kicking the can has become the status quo in Idaho government. There are no campaigns to go home to this year. Now’s the time to get something done. House Speaker Scott Bedke said last week that he wouldn’t call the session unless education was addressed. It’s a step in the right direction. But Bedke should go one further. No adjournment until both education and transportation are handled, should be Bedke’s mantra. More of the same, driven by political weakness, is an unacceptable dereliction of duty. There’s no grand bargain in the works for transportation either. The state needs between $250 million and $500 million to adequately care for its roads. Right now, numbers in the $84 million range are being bantered around. Tax and fee hikes are needed and everyone knows it. Lawmakers are even considering using the state general fund to boost road
work appropriations. It’s terrible policy that removes the burden from the user and would place highway work in direct competition with schools. Half measures, indeed. Yet again, the problem is the GOP’s right flank, whose only political philosophy is hard-line ideology. There’s no give among this crowd. Any fix must be rammed through in spite of them. Trying to play ball with a contingent, only answerable to right-wing think tanks, is doomed political strategy. It’s especially true when too much of the early session was squandered flailing about as the most recent Otter administration fiasco, the Idaho Education Network, crashed and burned. It’s time for a truce between Republicans and minority Democrats. It’s time to muscle real solutions past the GOP right flank that have, for too long, run Idaho into the ground. It’s time for centrist politics that acknowledges the way things have been done are eviscerating Idaho. But any deal would take time. And leaving without one should be off the table.