To the Editor:

In the recent edition of The Smoky Mountain News, Carl Iobst’s letter seems to indicate that traditional media sources are responsible for their own demise, but the references he cites suggest just the opposite. Fake news is easy and profitable — especially when it feeds stories to the ultra-right minded folks.

To the Editor:

To my friends in Western North Carolina, I will be retiring on December 31.

I am writing a fictional spy novel. Here is the draft outline of it.

By Greg Christopher • Guest Columnist

This time of year, as many people are counting their blessings, they also realize they want to publicly share their good fortune to others by ways of different acts of kindness — to family, friends and even complete strangers. Sometimes, it can be easy to take our good fortune for granted as our day-in and day-out routines take over our minds, so I want to use this Christmas and holiday season as an opportunity for a professional yet humble and thankful evaluation.

As fall visitors flocked to Western North Carolina in mid-October, Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center welcomed a distinguished visitor — former First Lady Laura Bush and a group of her childhood friends.

Ingles Markets in Waynesville: Barber Blvd. Thursday, December 15, 3-6 p.m.

To the Editor:

As President Obama’s impressive term winds down and the focus shifts to speculation about an uncertain, perhaps ominous, future, we do well to recall —and celebrate — the achievements of the past eight years. Over fierce, sometimes malicious, opposition, our 44th president is leaving us a significant trove of lasting benefits. In the area of environmental protections alone, as the Sierra Club reminds us:

• The economic stimulus, instituted after the 2008 meltdown left by the Bush administration, invested $90 billion in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green jobs and technology. As a result, wind-generated electricity has grown three-fold, and solar electricity generation has increased 30-fold (even my wife and I have put 20 solar panels on our roof).

• The auto-industry bailout spurred car and truck manufacturers to agree to increase fuel economy standards to 36.6 mpg by 2017 and 54.5 mpg by 2025, avoiding tons of carbon pollution and pushing a transition to electric vehicles (even I now drive one).

• The EPA has instituted significant air and water safeguards affecting coal-fired power plants, including its Clean Power Plan that calls for cleaning up carbon pollution from existing plants.

• The Defense Department has recognized climate change as a security risk, and put in place a growing number of energy-saving practices.

• Over 20 new national monuments have been designated, protecting 265 million acres of land and water — more than any previous president.

• Prompted by a 2014 agreement between the U.S. and China, a breakthrough global climate agreement has been reached in Paris.

• The Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline has been rejected, a big step toward keeping large parts of our earth home from becoming uninhabitable in our lifetimes by keeping more and more fossil fuels in the ground.

• The Interior Department has placed a moratorium on new coal mining leases on public lands.

And the list goes on.

While we have President Obama to thank for taking these steps to protect our environmental habitat, we know that he could not have done it without the support — and pressure — from the people’s climate movement. That’s us!

So, now with a new administration peopled by climate deniers about to enter the stage, we must redouble our efforts to maintain these gains, keep our global commitments, and protect our planet and our children’s future — already threatened by ever-worsening climate disasters. Here in Western North Carolina we can look to — and support — organizations like the Creation Care Alliance, Mountain True, Appalachian Voices, Haywood Waterways Association, Dogwood Alliance, Southern Environmental Law Center, North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, as they lead us in this crucial effort.

Doug Wingeier

Waynesville

To the Editor:

The traditional news media (newspapers) have killed themselves through poor writing, a lack of balanced reporting, advocacy journalism and an all-around snooty attitude toward their readers/listeners/viewers (“shut up and read/listen/view what we tell you to because we know best”). Increased per issue costs, constant advertisements and big juicy scandals such as the plagiarism affair with Jayson Blair at the Grey Lady (New York Times) 13 years ago didn’t help the industry either.

The two names who lately have seemingly contributed the most towards the demise of traditional media (which started with the opinionated disinformation by Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News television broadcast after the Tet Offensive in 1968 http: //tinyurl.com/hsyrfvg) are Jestin Coler and Paul Horner.

Coler was highlighted recently in a piece that NPR did last Wednesday (http://tinyurl.com/hfrquso) on his company Disinfomedia and the various Internet fake news platforms he has created. Coler is a registered Democrat and he “got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right.” That hate-filled aspiration doesn’t seem to have worked out very well for Jestin.

Horner, another leftist, runs the Internet fake news site National Report where he attempted to torpedo Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions except it backfired on him when Trump managed to get to 270 electoral votes despite Horner’s Soviet-style agitprop campaign. Horner, who allegedly expressed chagrin with that outcome evidently doesn’t understand the meaning of blow-back. Tisk, tisk.

To the forgotten man, the media actually is easily defined. It is whatever media platform purports to write/speak the news; and yes, The Smoky Mountain News gets lumped in with rags such as Fuzz Busted, because anything in 2016 that is not too blatantly trying to sell stuff to the forgotten man is the media. 

I remember as a boy what it was like to watch my grandfather read the papers on a Sunday afternoon, and I came to do so also. He became informed on events near and far and derived great pleasure from the experience. Today, I subscribe to two newspapers and pick up from the box another two free papers regularly. This is mostly for reasons of nostalgia, as it doesn’t seem to be as pleasurable to read the papers for me as it was for my grandfather. And so it goes.

Nota bene: Jon McNaughton’s painting “The Forgotten Man” is probably the inspiration for the phrase in current usage and as such is entirely apropos.

Carl Iobst

Cullowhee

Steady rains over the past week have caused the N.C. Forest Service to lift burning bans for 32 counties, including Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain.

As December unfolds, birders across the globe will embark on a quest to tally as many birds and species as possible over the course of a single day in a 15-mile radius. The Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count, now in its 117th year, will feature a variety of local opportunities for expert and novice birders alike to participate in this annual birding experience.

A new-to-science lichen species discovered in March 2016 has been named after Fontana Dam due to its discovery in the forest above Fontana Village. 

With the help of the Blue Ridge Parkway Association, the Appalachian Mural Trail Group began accomplishing its vision on Dec. 1.

When hurricane-force winds met burning, bone-dry forest, the city of Gatlinburg transformed overnight on Nov. 28-29 from lively tourist town to panic-seared disaster area. Gusts clocking in as high as 87 miles per hours blew balls of fire down from the blaze’s origin in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, catching residents and visitors by surprise in the days following Thanksgiving. People raced to evacuate, to escape the flames that threatened to consume the entire city.

Although the water situation in the area seems to be improving thanks to the recent rains, the town of Waynesville Water Treatment staff discovered another unintended side effect of the low water levels.

The Junaluska Sanitary District experienced a discharge of untreated sewage from a blockage in a line located Southeast of Loop Road in Clyde this afternoon.

With a high number of ballots being rejected from the Nov. 8 election, Jackson County’s NAACP branch is asking for testimony from voters who cast a provisionary ballot.

I normally buy plain yogurt and sometimes there's a slightly yellow liquid floating on top. What is that and is it still safe to eat the yogurt?

To the Editor:

I would like to thank you for your excellent opinion piece in the Nov. 22 issue of the The Smoky Mountain News.  

Prior to the election I had a conversation with a friend of mine, a young college student. She expressed some positive feelings toward Hillary Clinton but said she was voting for Trump because Clinton was not a Christian. I asked her why she believed that. She seemed to have concluded this from listening to her boyfriend and social media. 

I presented her with what I felt were concrete examples to contradict her assumption. In response, she dismissed my examples in favor of her own set of “facts.” 

This example reinforced my concern that we have raised a generation of young Americans seriously lacking critical thinking skills. Karl Marx wrote that “Religion is the opium of the masses.” I am beginning to think that social media is the new opiate.

Margery Abel

Franklin

To the Editor:

While I agree with many of the concerns you have with fake news (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/18865), it didn’t start with social media or the internet. The “people [who] are too lazy to search out the truth or they just don’t really care” have existed since before Gutenberg, not just with the advent of social media. Your so-called “legitimate” media have been in free-fall for decades. Yellow Journalism started with newspapers, not social media. The only difference is one of magnitude.

You ask, “What happens to democracy in a post-factual age? We have no idea because it hasn’t happened before.”

You couldn’t possibly be serious. The old media have no equal when it comes to distorting facts or simply making them up. Contrary to your assertion, they have been doing it for years. And, I won’t even count the network quiz show scandals.

Charles Hammond, in an editorial in the Cincinnati Gazette, wrote, “General [Andrew] Jackson’s mother was a Common Prostitute brought to this country by British soldiers. She afterwards married a Mulatto Man, with whom she had several children, of which General Jackson is one!!!”

Who knew at the time that FDR was a cripple or that JFK was a drug and sex addict? It was only with the conspiratorial aid of a complicit media that it was covered up. But, only those favored by the media received, and continue to receive, partiality.

Using a quote from Thomas Jefferson to “re-emphasize civic education in our public schools” is rather peculiar when you consider that while he served as Secretary of State, he was the impetus to founding the National Gazette to counter the influence of the Gazette of the United States, a Federalist newspaper. He subsidized the paper with grants from the State Department. Back then, as now, it was all about politics. Fake news has been with us for generations.

Then there is Dan Rather’s Killian documents controversy. The New York Times with the plagiarism of Jayson Blair and Rick Bragg. NYT’s John F. Burns and Newsday’s Roy Gutman’s reportage of the Balkans wars. Jack Kelley at USA Today. Brian Williams. Stephen Glass. Janet Cooke. George Stephanopoulos.

Don’t forget that Newsweek had to retract a story claiming the Quran had been flushed down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay by U.S. prison guards.

Last, but by no means least, is Walter Cronkite. Despite his sobriquet of  “The most trusted man in America,” his political slanting was so egregious that CBS replaced him as anchor at the 1964 political conventions with Robert Trout and Roger Mudd. He also led the media lies about the Tet Offensive. Cronkite lied. Young men died.

In a rare, candid essay Will Rahn, managing director of politics for CBS News Digital, confessed that the White House Press Corps “were all tacitly or explicitly  #WithHer.” “Journalists, at our worst, see ourselves as a priestly caste. We believe we not only have access to the indisputable facts, but also a greater truth, a system of beliefs divined from an advanced understanding of justice…. We must become more impartial, not less so. We have to abandon our easy culture of tantrums and recrimination. We have to ... admit that, as a class, journalists have a shamefully limited understanding of the country we cover.”

I’m certain a good many of your readers are not surprised by the content of his essay, but are surprised at the admission.

We realize the media haven’t changed much from the days of the New York Times’ Walter (“you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs”) Duranty and his ill-gotten Pulitzer Prize despite lying about the Holomodor. That’s why, when Donald Trump points to the media at his rallies and calls them liars, the response is overwhelmingly in agreement.

Timothy Van Eck

Whittier

Haywood County has been declared a primary disaster area due to drought, making family farms eligible for federal assistance such as Farm Service Agency emergency loans.

Each of the Waynesville Judo Club’s six members came home with a medal from their Oct. 29 competition at University of Tennessee Knoxville.

North Carolina is working to establish rules for a pilot program allowing industrial hemp production, with the newly formed N.C. Industrial Hemp Commission holding its first meeting this month.

When the wildfires burning across Western North Carolina are extinguished, Western Carolina University faculty will likely be eying their footprints for outdoor classrooms.

After disease wiped out Haywood Community College’s famed dahlia garden this year, the Carolinas Dahlia Society stepped up with a donation to restore the garden to its former glory.

The elk viewing experience in the Cataloochee Valley area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will get a boost thanks to a $3,500 grant that Friends of the Smokies received from the Haywood County Tourism and Development Authority.

Ingles warmly welcomes one of our newest LOCAL vendors, Smiling Hara Tempeh. 

Arboretum collecting firefighting donations 

Due to heightened fire danger throughout the region, the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville will not have fire pits as part of its Winter Lights event — instead, the arboretum is asking ticketholders to swap out s’mores purchases for donations of supplies.

A collection bin to hold donations for firefighters and first responders battling North Carolina wildfires will be available inside the Baker Exhibit Center lobby. Requested items include bottled water, Gatorade, lip balm, saline eye drops, pre-packaged food and protein bars. 

Supplies can be dropped off during regular arboretum hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or during the Winter Lights event that is now held nightly 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1. 

Purchase tickets at www.ncarboretum.org/exhibits-events/winter-lights. 

Game lands closed due to wildfires

Game lands managed by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission are facing temporary closure as a result of the wildfires spreading across Western North Carolina. 

The Toxaway Game Land and South Mountains Game Land have been closed, and portions of game lands in the Nantahala National Forest are closed as well. 

Depending on how quickly the fires spread and how long they last, officials may close additional roads or access to other game lands, if needed. Officials are keeping a close eye on the Chestnut Knob fire, which continues to spread, bringing it closer to South Mountains Game Land.

Updated closure information is available at www.ncwildlife.org/Hunting/Where-to-Hunt/Public-Places.

National Forest areas closed due to wildfire

Spreading wildfires have forced additional closures of trails, areas and roads in the Nantahala National Forest.

These newer closures cover the Chunky Gal area on the Tusquittee Ranger District, the Southern Nantahala Wilderness area on the Nantahala Ranger District and the Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness Area on the Cheoah Ranger District. 

Many other closures are also in effect, including the Appalachian Trail from the Georgia line to the Nantahala Outdoor Center near Bryson City. 

For a full list of closures, visit http://bit.ly/2g3nCAp.

Swain and Jackson counties have been designated as primary natural disaster areas due to losses from the ongoing drought.

Drought conditions are taking their toll on livestock operations in the area, according to Jackson County Cooperative Extension, causing a shortage of hay and increased risk of bovine pulmonary edema and emphysema, or ABPE.

A new website highlighting land protection projects along the North Carolina section of the Blue Ridge Parkway is up and running, touting 76 properties totaling 63,948 acres that had been protected as of Dec. 31, 2015.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was honored for its use of positive-impact forestry on the Qualla Boundary when the EBCI Office of Natural Resources won the 2016 EcoForester Award in a ceremony celebrating local forest products industry and sustainable forestry. 

To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing The Smoky Mountain News. We enjoy reading it every week. I would like to raise a few points regarding your opinion column in the Nov. 16 edition (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/18818). 

First, remember the Electoral College issue only affects the presidential election. The branch of government the founding fathers intended to be the most crucial was the Congress, and of course we have large state/small state balance in the two-house structure. The executive branch was designed primarily to simply execute the laws passed by Congress. 

If the president’s power was limited to the level spelled out in the Constitution, the presidential elections would be far less criticaI. I believe it is fair to say all of the founding fathers were very worried about the presidency becoming too powerful. 

I refer you to the book recently reviewed by one of your book reviewers: Nine Presidents Who Screwed Up America: and Four Who Tried to Save Her. All Americans should support measures to reduce presidential power.

Second, my thoughts regarding the recent election results were similar to those in your piece until I listened to Rush Limbaugh’s programs over the past few days (sorry to refer to him. I’m sure you are not a proponent of his views but I believe these are valid points). He correctly pointed out that if the presidential race was based on popular vote both candidates would have campaigned much differently. Trump did not campaign in very blue states and Clinton did not campaign in red states. 

What would the outcome be if they did? We know that in states where they did both campaign Trump was more successful. And if the popular vote was the basis of the election, it would certainly result in more blue state Republicans and red state Democrats going to the polls. So the popular vote might have favored Trump if that was the format. 

I support the Electoral College format for the presidential elections and am certainly glad we live in a republic, not a democracy. Thanks for the opportunity to respond to your editorial.

John Johnson

Lake Junaluska

Two local authors and the Bethel Rural Community Organization’s Historic Preservation Committee were among award winners at the annual meeting of the North Carolina Society of Historians (NCSH) in Wilkesboro.

During his tenure on the Haywood County Commission, retiring Chairman Mark Swanger has certainly shaped what the future of the county will look like for decades to come.

Sunshine Sammies ice cream sandwiches are available in our FROZEN FOOD section.

Jackson County students in third through ninth grade will get a chance to share their messages on the importance of soil and water with this year’s annual contest through the Jackson County Soil and Water Conservation District. 

For the sixth year running, Western North Carolina has been recognized as one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in North America by The Princeton Review. 

A new map is available detailing more than 2 million acres of public forests, parks and scenic byways throughout Western North Carolina and East Tennessee.

The Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians is just over a year old, but it’s already being recognized as a standout.

One of the largest conservation easements to ever be donated by an individual in North Carolina history has been finalized in Rutherford and McDowell counties.

I needed nearly a full day after the election before I could formulate a response to the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. 

Just before 10 p.m. on election night, as Florida and North Carolina broke for Trump and it began to dawn on everyone that all the pollsters and pundits had had it all wrong, I must have read two dozen posts on Facebook ranging in tone from delirious celebration to abject misery to complete disbelief, but I contributed nothing because I just could not believe what was unfolding.

To the Editor:

On a personal level, I am quite unhappy with last Tuesday’s election results. As a “community leader,” what concerns me more is that Haywood County no longer has any representative in Raleigh. In the last legislative map drawing, Haywood County was a sacrificial lamb. I have no recriminations for those people that held that political brush.  

However, as the canvas is now painted, I see nothing good for the county for generations to come. This isn’t about Democrats and Republicans. It is a serious political issue when the largest electorate in a governmental district has no voice. And that’s what Haywood is — the largest county by population in both the 118th and the 119th state House districts and in the 50th Senate District.  

I challenge the citizens of Haywood County, the political parties, businesses and other affected entities to rectify this civic injustice. We don’t have the liberty to point fingers, but we have the obligation to rightfully take our seat at the table.

In politics, “pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered.” I for one, don’t relish my county on the political menu as an hors d’oeurve.   

Mayor Gavin A. Brown

Waynesville 

A man the Clyde Police Department and Haywood County Sheriff’s Office mentioned as “wanted” in connection to an armed robbery that happened at the Single Stop on Carolina Boulevard in Clyde on Oct. 15 has been arrested.