Kentucky editorial roundup

Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:

___

Sept. 7

The Daily Independent of Ashland on a Pew Research Center survey about Facebook:

There are some interesting facts to be found in a new Pew Research Center survey about Facebook.

The survey results were released this month. It shows a lot of people who use Facebook are taking a second look at how they do so. More than half say they have adjusted their privacy settings in the last year. More than 40 percent have taken a break from checking the platform for several weeks or more. About 25 percent said they deleted the Facebook app from their cellphone, according to the Pew Research Center website.

We’ve written about this issue before but we think it is an important one - when it comes to media, things feel, to us, like they are changing yet again, and this is particularly true about social media.

We know media changes all the time. There is a new technology, a new website, a new gadget, a new app. It is a part of our lives that morphs constantly, driven mostly by advances in technology. It is a dizzying task to try to keep up with it all. What is dominant today will likely not be dominant in the future. But the changes in how people are viewing and using Facebook seem to be more than just a short-lived trend to us.

The survey findings listed above highlight a scientific approach to gathering peoples’ opinions. This scientific approach demonstrates people are more wary of social media platforms like Facebook, and it also shows a significant chunk of people are using it less. We also have our own observations that are, admittedly, very unscientific, so take it for what it’s worth, but our thoughts are:

- People are beyond fatigued by the caustic, often politically divisive content on social media, with the heart of it found on Facebook. American politics are now so exhausting given our stark divides. To go on social media and to be preached to by someone you might see once a year in person about why and how your views are right or wrong is only making it worse. We are sick of it and we suspect pretty much everyone else is too. We think this is a major reason why people are taking a break.

- The privacy violations are alarming. When you combine the political fatigue with concerns about privacy, Facebook is facing a double whammy.

- People are starving for thoughtful, meaningful, local content like what you find in the local paper or on the local news. What you find in Facebook posts, however, when it comes to local information are rants, half truths or in the worst case scenario falsehoods. Consumers are smart. They are fatigued on this front as well and turning away from social media because of this.

There are ebbs and tides in everything. Politics. Societal trends. Media. We would like to think that, just perhaps, society is moving back to more meaningful, respectful communications. We believe that those turning away from social media are doing so for this very reason.

Online: http://www.dailyindependent.com/

___

Sept. 7

Lexington Herald-Leader on Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin defending a raise for the state’s information technology chief:

Gov. Matt Bevin recently defended a $215,000 raise for the state’s information technology chief by saying that Charles Grindle, a retired Army colonel, could make far more than his $375,000 state salary in the private sector.

“Frankly we’re underpaying him … relative to his value,” said Bevin.

Of course, that could be said of many public employees - Kentucky State Police, for example, whose starting pay is $37,886. Or teachers.

There’s no salary increase for troopers and other state employees in the current two-year budget, though inflation is eating 3 percent of their earnings which have been stagnant for a decade. If Bevin gets his way, Kentucky’s future teachers would lose defined benefit pensions, though they don’t receive Social Security.

So much for paying people what they’re worth.

Grindle, whose resume is impressive, is president of Lone Star Graphics, a consulting firm in Pennsylvania that did some work for Bevin’s 2015 campaign for governor. Bevin’s campaign reported paying Grindle’s company a little under $10,000 for information technology services - though, clearly, the association produced a greater reward than that for Grindle.

Kentucky had no designated chief information officer for almost two years after Bevin became governor. Grindle’s hiring was announced in December 2017.

His raise took effect Aug. 1, making him Kentucky’s highest-paid state employee. He’s also the nation’s highest paid state chief information officer, according to a survey by the Council of State Governments. (Kentucky ranks 46th in median household income, but in CIO pay we’re No. 1.)

In response to questions from Courier Journal’s Tom Loftus, who broke the news of the $215,000 raise, the Finance and Administration Cabinet released a statement saying that savings realized under Grindle’s leadership already have more than paid for his raise, including “$2.9 million in cost reductions created by managing consulting contracts and video conferencing. His plan for a new converged server and storage infrastructure will create an estimated $3 million in annual savings beginning in fiscal year 2019.”

We asked the governor’s office about the relationship between Bevin’s campaign and Grindle’s company and received an email from Bevin’s campaign treasurer, Eva Smith, who said, “Chuck Grindle and Lone Star Graphics have no affiliation with ’Matt Bevin for Kentucky.’” She did not respond to a follow-up question, though it should go without saying that Grindle’s company couldn’t work for Bevin’s campaign while Grindle is working for the state.

Grindle’s pay now exceeds that of Vivek Sarin, whom Bevin hired at $250,000 a year as an economic development specialist though his main qualification seemed to be his friendship and political support for Bevin. Bevin also hired a Baptist minister as his adoption “czar” on a $240,000 contract that Bevin ended early, requiring a $60,000 termination fee. Bevin’s new adoption advisers, a husband-wife team, will be paid $165,000 a year, drawn from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Bevin, who spent more than $4 million of his own fortune to become governor, has supported policies that will increase already gaping income inequality in the private sector. He’s doing the same in state government, even at the cost of workforce morale.

Online: http://www.kentucky.com/

___

Sept. 12

The Daily News of Bowling Green on Barack Obama’s critique of President Donald Trump:

In 2016, Americans rejected the failed policies of then-President Barack Obama by electing President Donald Trump.

Obama wasn’t on the ballot, but Hillary Clinton was, and she openly supported many of his policies and pledged to continue many of them, if elected. She was defeated, an indication that Americans wanted a change of direction for our country.

Many of us hoped Obama would just ride off into the sunset, perhaps write a book about his time as president and enjoy being a private citizen again. After all, most presidents have done this for decades and decades. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush did this gracefully, fading off into the sunset, actually enjoying being private citizens and showing class by not speaking ill of their successors at times when they may have been tempted to do so.

They, like other presidents who haven’t spoken ill of their successors, should be commended for doing so. These ex-presidents actually respect the lengthy unspoken tradition of not speaking ill of their successors. The same cannot be said about Obama, who had always said he intended to follow the example set by former President George W. Bush. On several occasions now, because of his huge ego and tactless character, Obama has pounced on Trump, and in doing so broke this unspoken tradition.

Last week, Obama told an auditorium of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that Trump is a “threat to our democracy” and a demagogue practicing the “politics of fear and resentment.”

Sometimes by name, sometimes by inference, he accused Trump of cozying up to Russia, emboldening white supremacists and polarizing the nation.

Obama’s speech was one of a threat to our democracy and one of demagoguery. He used scare tactics and rabble rousing in his speech. Saying that Trump emboldens white supremacists, a claim that is not founded in fact, is using words to further divide us as a country and is quite hypocritical, considering Obama often played on race in many of his speeches before he became president and after. It was also interesting to hear him say that he, not Trump, was responsible for the low unemployment rates our country now enjoys. Of course, his remarks were untrue, as Trump’s policies are the primary reason unemployment is so low.

Not only that, but manufacturing jobs are now growing at a healthy rate. The gross domestic product was at a 4.2 percent for the most recent reporting period and consumer and small business confidence is through the roof.

Jim Manley, a longtime Senate Democratic aide, took issue with Obama going after Trump.

“I understand the idea that Democrats want to get the former president on the campaign trail as much as possible,” Manley said, “but I’m not so sure that makes sense strategically because Trump would love nothing more than to use Obama as a punching bag.”

Manley’s right on target. Clinton lost for many reasons, and Obama was one of them. The more he gets out there and talks ill of Trump, the more it benefits Trump and the Republican Party.

At the end of the day, Mr. Obama should have stuck to tradition and not spoken ill of his successor. But we must consider the source, as this is the same president who blamed George W. Bush for eight years for a great many problems the country faced. Bush showed pure class and stayed quiet as he respected the unspoken tradition, unlike Obama.

Mr. Obama, you are not our president anymore. You broke with tradition by going against your own words of not speaking ill of your successor and that reflects your true lack of class and character.

Online: https://www.bgdailynews.com/