You can't argue with the figures

Comedy Central's hilarious TV program "The Colbert Report" stars Stephen Colbert in a parody of some well-known political pundits. On his very first night on the air, Colbert coined a word that has since entered the lexicon: "truthiness." It's a word referring to the type of statement that seems true to the person saying it, regardless of the facts, and usually implies that the writer or speaker doesn't particularly want to be disturbed by the facts, just like the character Colbert portrays so brilliantly on his show.

Since the launch of the new Times-Gazette web site a few weeks ago, I've been trying to keep an eye on the various comments people leave on stories and blog postings.

Due to many reader requests, we ran a couple of articles earlier this week about the impact the Celebration has on Bedford County. One such article was a word-for-word repeat of a story we ran in April, while the other was a consolidation and update of some other stories from that same series.

Well, the commenters on the web site were not pleased. There were comments accusing us of being on the take, lambasting our one-sided reporting, and saying that it was obvious the Celebration was a drain on Bedford County and we'd be much better off without it.

Well, the Celebration, and the horse industry, are far from perfect. You've got every right not to enjoy the horse show, or to be angry because some horse owner behaved in a stuck-up fashion, or because there are golf carts on the streets are what have you. You have every right to object to training methods which you consider cruel. If you want to complain about those things, feel free. If you don't want to attend the horse show, no one is forcing you.

But you can't say that the Walking Horse industry doesn't have an economic impact on Bedford County. That's not a matter of opinion; it's a matter of dollars and cents. You can count up the horse barns, the hotel rooms, the horse equipment sales. You can work out the economic impact of the Celebration on Bedford County, maybe not to the penny, but accurately enough to show that it's one of our major industries.

Also -- and this is less objective, but still pretty straightforward -- you can document the importance of the horse industry as a "brand" for our community by talking to industrial recruiters and even to Commissioner of Economic and Community Development Matt Kisber, who talked about it as recently as last Thursday during a civic club program.

If you don't like the Celebration, that's your opinion, and you have every right to it. But if you claim not to be affected by the Celebration, you are in the same boat as the fellow who claims the earth is flat or that Elvis is pumping gas at a convenience store in Butte, Mont. The Celebration, and the industry which surrounds it, affect all of us.

There are, no doubt about it, inconveniences during Celebration time. There are, no doubt about it, added expenses for local government. We as a community have every right to raise questions about who pays for what, or how this or that rule is enforced, or what have you. But we have to be careful not to kill the golden goose. The Celebration generates tax revenue and creates jobs. And if you try to deny that, just because you have some chip on your shoulder, you are dealing in "truthiness," not truth.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com .