The Local Specter of Fake News and a Lack of Public Input
Amid sometimes contentious Reno City Council discussions involving usual holdout councilwoman Jenny Brekhus to purchase and repair the Space Whale, to turn the Believe Plaza into a skate park, to shower the City Manager with praise and a much higher salary and to give Jacobs Entertainment the development agreement it sought, Mayor Hillary Schieve brandished the phrase “fake news” to seemingly address those questioning this decision-making process. This followed fellow council members Devon Reese using the term “disinformation” and Neoma Jardon alleging there is “swirling misinformation.”
These comments immediately drew alarm among advocates who have been fighting for better winter conditions at the Safe Camp and Cares Campus with a petition that now involves back and forth with the County, as well as within local media and information providing circles. Who exactly were these powerful council members referring to? Former U.S. President Donald Trump popularized the term “fake news” as a way to attack journalists and to discount all negative coverage as being based on animus, and to be discarded as a nuisance. The term has gone out of fashion on the national level so to see it reemerge locally is disconcerting to say the least.
In today’s world, information comes from much more diverse sources, including social media and advocates, who recently commented on a photo by one of them on Facebook showing a pile of boulders near the Cares Campus where unhoused people used to gather. Speaking of communication, a new more flippant style adopted by the official City of Reno Twitter account seems to be getting backlash (see below).
Beyond terminologies and ways to present information, many in our community are bemoaning the lack of public input on big decisions being made for our collective future and wondering whether proper procedure is being ignored. Posts this week across our social media about the frayed space whale and the newly planned downtown skate park garnered hundreds of comments, many of them with great suggestions, showing there is an appetite to be constructive and help the City better shape its central downtown plaza. Some people say they feel much like the Jacobs bought out motels: discounted, bulldozed and cast away.
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As part of our heroes of Reno series, highlighting those giving back, this week we featured Bill Sims whose own father was unhoused, Jane Dunn, who leads the Reno Posse, and local foster school grandparents.
We also featured, Dale Slingland, a local artist who overcame health challenges and is now passing on his love for art to his son. He is part of an opening tonight of a show at Pitch Black Printing co. called A Nightmare on 4th Street: The Devil Made Me Do It.