Journalism used to be a highly regarded profession back when its purpose was to tell the truth, to weed out the false narratives and self-aggrandizing agendas of those who would be king. The reports in both local papers as well as the local tv station of the hearing last Monday in the Historic Courtroom were misleading, if not downright scandalous. It would take me pages to address each error in reporting. Let it suffice to say, “yellow journalism” is alive and well in Haywood County, unfortunately. Why does the truth frighten you so much? Why does the media continue not to ask questions, not to dig for truth, not to support our Constitution and the American way of life, but rather to purport and to support a dead-end, “no one wins this game” agenda? Isn’t anyone in the media, aren’t you all in the media, ashamed that you don’t ask questions, but rather TELL people what they must surely think and how they must respond? Whatever happened to reporting facts and letting the reader decide based on unbiased reporting? We no longer have journalism in Haywood County; we have a propaganda machine that spews forth venom and discord, fear and ignorance.
Addressing the erroneous reporting of that meeting in the Mountaineer by Mary Ann Enloe “Mountaineer correspondent”: first paragraph and second, for that matter. It is not that gun owners “itch like rumors that their right to carry firearms might be messed with” (read the Constitution and its Amendments, please, before you write on these issues important to Patriots as well as to those who aren’t awake enough yet to realize the importance and significance of these documents). It is called “infringed” for a reason, MAE. Also, you purposefully made it sound like those who own guns stride around with them strapped to their bodies and waving them in the air. Not so, and you know it. Second paragraph, “…250 of them…” Huh? 250 of whom? 250 of what? Why not “250 of us” or “250 Patriots”? You made the article adversarial from the beginning—“us” against “them”. Again, I refer you to The Constitution which begins, “We the People”. Next, “..to lash out…” You call presenting opinions, life-experiences and asking questions in calm voices, exercising our rights as tax-paying citizens of Haywood County and the United States of America, “lashing out”? And, this is just the first two paragraphs. Believe me, I could go on.
Why didn’t any journalist present (using “journalist” in the highest sense of the word) ask questions such as these:
- What was behind the excessive law enforcement presence at the hearing?
- Were they there to protect and support We the People or to control We the People in case the hearing “got a little too rowdy” for the commissioners’ comfort?
- Why do you think Mr. Paul Vitone “zeroed in” on the Allen’s Creek Park issue? Could it have been because it was the most obviously egregious overreach of the proposed amendment to the ordinance?
- Why demean and ridicule the people who are willing to be responsible for their own safety and well-being as well as for the safety and well-being of others?
- We are NOT a democracy. America was founded as and thus far remains by the grace of God, a Constitutional Representative Republic. Why was Chairman Swanger not called out by your reporter on his statement which you used to end her report, “This was democracy on display”? As a former federal employee, he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. One would think he knows the difference between a Constitutional Republic and a democracy.
- Why again, add fuel to a fire that shouldn’t exist in the first place, by subtitling part of the report as “More rights”? Who was asking for “more rights”? I was present, and I never heard anyone ask for more Nearly all asked that our guaranteed rights not be infringed.
Is there anyone, any reporter, any editor in this area of the state that believes in our Constitution and its Amendments, who believes in reporting THE TRUTH and not in simply serving up ideological slop for consumption? If so, we have two written publications and one tv station that could use your services.
Carolyn Underwood
Maggie Valley
What would anyone expect from the bolshevik lying media who carries the water for the communist liberal democrat party and the rino republicrats. these people are enemies of the state plain and simple and if anyone cannot see this then they are walking around like the walking dead in there zombified bodies. again, these are evil demonic people spewing lie after lie and they believe they can get away with there godless false statements. We people are sick and tired of the WHORE media, and that is plain and simple.
Please tell me you are not shocked at such reporting. Progressives (communist} have taken over 4 areas in order to control the narrative. These are the fields of academia, media, politics and the legal system. Once they control these, they are able to control the direction of the nation.