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All the News That’s Fit to Talk About

by Eva Murray

Just about every media outlet this side of Neptune has got a story up about the biggest news item in the country—if not the planet—this month, that being of course the appearance of not just one but two snowy owls on Matinicus Island last weekend. Oh, no; it’s the “partial federal government shutdown,” and all the people who are valiantly going to work without getting paid.

If you see this column around the first of the month, when the paper comes out, I’ll be in Montana for a friend’s wedding. Well, hopefully; the plan was to fly from Matinicus to Rockland, drive to Portland, then fly out of Portland on the 29th of January to Detroit, connecting through Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Coeur D’Alene, Calgary, Missoula, Butte, and arrive in Bozeman about an hour before we got up. Something like that.

Let’s just hope somebody’s at work at Air Traffic Control and the TSA. My husband and I were also hoping to go to Yellowstone while out that way. Of course as I write, early in January, that is not at all certain. I suppose we could snowshoe in and pick up some trash, but there will be no snow coach tour if the National Parks are still officially closed.

The National Parks are among the least of our worries.

There are two subjects to this month’s ramble, friends: the real problem, and my problem. The real problem is, obviously, the federal government shutdown, which is affecting all kinds of Americans who never make headlines. My own little problem is trying to write about this when many federal workers can’t talk about the shutdown. I ask friends in maritime professions who are impacted by this mess questions, and after they describe their own particular workplace monkey-wrenching, they add, “Just don’t use this in an article.”

I wish it were different, but I understand why it is this way. Having been misquoted, angered, and embarrassed by reporters myself—even ones who think they’re helping me—I completely understand a person’s hesitation to speak to anybody brandishing pad and pencil.

I am not, and never have been, a real reporter. I am a mere freelancer, a self-indulgent scribbler in coffee shops, an occasional agitator, a transportation nerd looking for excuses to get rides on things, an armchair anthropologist, a serious student of several extremely random topics, and a regular columnist for a handful of newspapers, mostly free ones. I am overseen by no City Desk, dispatched to no crime scenes, and required to ask no particular questions. (I do not “tell you everything that’s happening out on that island,” either, by the way, but that’s not my point today.) I can pick my timing, choose my subjects, stick my foot in my mouth, play dumb, run from trouble, incite to riot, or skip town, as I see fit. My editors sometimes request topics or encourage certain themes, but that happens more with the fluffy “lifestyle” content than it does with real news.

Ignoring my own limited and sketchy qualifications as a journalist, I’d like to think readers and potential interviewees know the difference between our responsible Defenders of Democracy and sensationalist tabloids, social media trolls, reality TV (“The Real Housewives of Brimstone Island?”) and other nonsense pseudo-journalism. “The media” has mud on its name.

Once a mild-mannered reporter—or friendly neighborhood columnist—starts asking around about the impact of the federal government shutdown, they become “the media.” Nobody likes you if you’re “the media.” If you’re “the media,” sitting at the corner tavern, all the Internal Revenue auditors, root-canal specialists, and bear trappers move away from you at the bar.

People who are madder than a wet cat about this sabotage of the American Way are still leery of calling it out. Many seriously impacted workers are not authorized to comment. Some absolutely can get in trouble at work for making any statement without going through channels. Comment is the job of the Human Resources Director, a Public Affairs Department, the Public Information Officer, or somebody else several levels up the chain of command who is way too busy to talk to yet another danged newspaper.

“The media” is largely considered by emergency workers and members of uniformed public safety professions to be Barely On Our Side.

Here on this island we’re used to everybody being self-employed, and if a lobsterman or a carpenter wants to cut loose on camera, there’s nobody except the neighbors to judge him. Not so every federal employee. The comments of an air traffic controller interviewed by National Public Radio were followed with the explanation that she “did not want her name used for fear of retribution.” There is often a genuine loyalty to the dignity of one’s profession, and an awareness that it is unhelpful, unpatriotic, or truly contrary to the interests of national security to complain to strangers. Save the venting for the privacy of the supper table. We have to respect that, much as we’d love a quote.

I was able to correspond with a Maine Maritime Academy senior a couple of weeks ago about the shutdown, and about how it impacted the MMA students:

“I’ll remain anonymous if that’s OK. The shutdown indirectly affects the academy but directly affects the seniors who are trying to become licensed. The partial shutdown has brought non-essential services related to the defense of the country to a halt, to sum it up. Testing for Coast Guard licenses would be one of these services. Starting Monday the 7th and going until Thursday the 10th (of January) the senior unlimited tonnage license majors were supposed to be taking our exams to possess our third assistant or third mate licenses. Due to the shutdown there were no personnel to administer these tests, so our testing days have been pushed back to March. For the last few months we, the students, have been studying to prepare for these tests and now they are going to be in the middle of the semester. But that isn’t really the big issue. The big issue is that the job hunt has been pushed back. Once we passed our exams our job (would be) to scramble and talk to everyone we can to get work, but with that being pushed back two months, the job hunt takes a serious turn.”

Here’s what I know about the shutdown:

1. If this shutdown messes with our students at the Maine Maritime Academy, we can be sure that every other region of the country has its own local concerns that the rest of the world doesn’t think about. There are thousands of stories here, some infuriating, some tragic, some just eye-opening. The specialized and regional realities would be interesting to hear about, I think;

2. Responsible people who have the lives of others under their care, such as air traffic controllers, are due a hell of a lot of credit for showing up;

3. Food safety inspections aren’t considered essential services either? Hello? Can that even be true? Frightening, if so.

The story isn’t just that the National Zoo is closed. This is a massive maltreatment of the American worker, federal and otherwise, as so many others are impacted second-hand when nearly a million go unpaid. I sure hope it is past history by time you read these words.

Eva Murray is the Recycling and Solid Waste Coordinator for Matinicus Island. Eva’s last lobster license was dated 1990, the year her son was born, and cost $53.00, which at the time she thought was an awful lot of money.