It’s tough being a public figure.
I may be a journalist but I have a heart. It’s tough to have your every move scrutinized, every word you utter recorded, and sometimes, misconstrued. I feel for you politicians, celebrities, and others who choose the limelight.
Often though, the reason it’s so hard to be in the public eye is the same reason you may wince when you see a picture of yourself on social media wearing your favorite dress and you realize it doesn’t really fit you well at all: You’re finally seeing a true reflection of yourself, and all your flaws, and you don’t like it.
“I didn’t say that,” is something reporters are accustomed to hearing from public figures. And we have the same reply:
“Yes. You did say that.”
Now maybe you didn’t mean that, but those were definitely the words you used.
That’s a hard pill to swallow, and in defense public figures lash out at the media. The media is only the mirror in the most benign of instances. At other times, it’s a spotlight revealing what no one else sees, and holding political figures accountable.
Either way, that scares some public figures. Right now, the big, bombastic presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, a man seemingly fearless, is scared of the media. As a defense mechanism, he’s revoking the press credentials of a variety of media outlets so they can’t attend Trump campaign rallies or press conferences.
Washington Post was the latest media outlet to get the Trump boot, but CNNMoney reports that it isn’t the first. Trump has banned The Des Moines Register, Univision, BuzzFeed, Politico, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, and others for “unfair” coverage. Not inaccurate coverage, mind you, but coverage he considers unfair.
When public figures try to chip away at the freedom of the press, everyone suffers. Anyone who disagrees is not looking at the whole picture.
Sure maybe you’d be happy if someone silenced MSNBC. Or you’d be thrilled if they gave Fox News the ax. Restricting the freedom of the press may silence the media you don’t agree with but will also adversely affect the journalists that are out there acting as a watchdog, and keeping an eye on both the right and the left. Think about the scandals and corruption that media has exposed through the years that would otherwise have remained hidden.
Trump vows to continue his war on the media should he be elected president.
And he has said so. NPR reported Trump as saying, “Yeah, it is going to be like this. You think I’m going to change? I’m not going to change.”
Yet, supporters gloss over this like a lovesick partner: “He doesn’t really mean that. He won’t really chip away at the freedom of the press.”
And I have one reply: “Yes. He said that.”
On the Central Coast there’s one demographic that knows what it feels like to be in the spotlight, without having asked for it.
I’m talking about farm laborers. A shortage of farmworkers locally has forced farmers to outsource labor and bring in foreign workers through the federal H-2A program. But where to put them?
Labor activists like Hazel Davalos, organizing director for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, says that dedicated housing far outside the city’s core is akin to a labor camp. She said that placing them on such a housing project, like the proposed Curletti Ranch at Highway 1 and Black Road, is similar to the placement of a sewage plant or landfill.
Cynthia Rice, director of litigation, advocacy, and training at California Rural Legal Assistance, said that building what she called “barracks” just for the workers perpetuates the domestic shortage.
Placing them in residential areas is objectionable to community residents who fear for their safety—and property values. And placing a few farmworker quarters on the property of the farmers themselves, well, that’s unthinkable isn’t it?
Farmworker rights activist Pedro Reyes identified another issue altogether. He said that growers need to improve working conditions rather than using H-2A. That would increase the interest from domestic workers and eliminate the need for employer-provided farmworker housing.
Jason Resnick, vice president and general counsel for the Western Growers Association, said people living in agricultural communities simply need to realize that farm labor is a part of their community.
“It’s not valid to oppose housing just because it’s going to be occupied by farmworkers. Farmworkers are hard-working people, and they live in our community,” he was quoted as saying.
Oh, snap. Yes, he did say that.
The Canary lives for the spotlight. Scrutinize away, and send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2016.