PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

From my position in the cheap seats out West, I am not sure I have anything cogent to add, but that won’t stop me.  So, here are a few impressions:

WHERE IS SOLID JOURNALISM?:  The opportunity to provide information about the virus – sometimes too much information, sometimes not enough, and sometimes filled with inaccuracies – does not always create solid journalism.\

However, one example of quality occurred this week when Oregon Public Broadcasting produced a solid piece under the headline, “Everything you want to know about coronavirus.”

Find it on-line.  It’s worth reading.

If you reflect back on previous health scares 10 or 20 years ago, just think about how much more information we have today compared to back then.  Frankly,with the rampant prevalence of social media, it can be too much.

Plus, if you are a public health official trying to inform the public, something you say one minute could be wrong or at least outdated the next.

WHAT IS AN “INFODEMIC”?:  The Washington Post produced a column this week that focused on a new word for me – “infodemic.”

Here are excerpts from the piece:

“The World Health Organization has approved of another, more innovative “-demic” term: “infodemic.”

“In a report last month, the organization warned of ‘a massive infodemic,’ an overabundance of information—some accurate and some not—that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.

“That warning was seconded by the MIT Technology Review, which observed that the virus has the makings of “the first true social-media ‘infodemic,’ as social media has zipped information and misinformation around the world at unprecedented speeds, fueling panic, racism … and hope.

“’Infodemic,’ as a shorthand for ‘information epidemic,’ has been circulating since 2003, when it was coined by the political scientist David J. Rothkopf in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. Rothkopf was addressing the SARS epidemic, writing, ‘A few facts, mixed with fear, speculation and rumor, amplified and relayed swiftly worldwide by modern information technologies, have affected national and international economies, politics and even security in ways that are utterly disproportionate with the root realities.’”

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THE PRESIDENT SAYING OR DOING?:    The Washington Post says the “president’s running commentary about the coronavirus, untethered to script or convention, indicates that the Trump Administration’s greatest obstacle to sending a clear message about the outbreak may be Trump himself.”

For me, in sum, the issue with Trump is this:  He has told so many lies over the last three years that, even if he happens to say something that could be true, many listeners, including me, believe he is lying again.

Or, in this case – the coronavirus challenge – making things up as he goes “untethered to script or convention.”

So, as we face a continuing epidemic, with “infodemic” proportions, I say we need find solid sources of real journalism and rely on those, not rampant, rumor-mongering social media.