Beyond 495

From Classes You Missed

As the well-known journalist and critic A.J. Liebling says, “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.”

I’m a big fan of freedom of the press. I think an objective, informative press is one of the cornerstones of our democracy. Well, it is when that is the goal of the newspaper. As we found out last week, the newspaper can also be partisan propaganda too.

Like most folks in my area, I read the local news in the Townsend Times, which is part of the Nashoba Publishers Group. They publish the local papers in Ayer, Groton, Harvard, Pepperell, Shirley and Townsend.

When I opened my newspaper last Friday, I was stunned by the pre-election editorial. I cannot remember a time, since I’ve moved to Townsend that I’ve ever seen such rank political propaganda.
I don’t live in Ayer, so I can’t speak to the allegations they list about the Selectman race, but what is incredible is the obvious smear tactics they used against Selectman Faye Morrison.

Look, if you have issues with a politician, fine — state them, but unless you’re willing to cite sources, and offer an opportunity for the candidate to respond, you’re not offering a service to the public, you’re pushing your own political agenda. We have enough partisans doing that already, thank you. What we need is for the newspapers to offer objective commentary, not partisan attacks — with no chance to respond to the attacks.

The timing of the editorial is suspect as well. The editorial was published Friday before the Tuesday election. Why not publish with enough time for candidates to respond? The Selectmen’s race in any given town is a good six weeks long. Nashoba Publications obviously made up their minds early, so why not publish an editorial with enough time for candidates to respond?

Unless the goal of Nashoba Publications is to prevent the candidate from offering a rebuttal because they have an interest in the outcome. It sure smells like that to me, and that’s just wrong.
So let’s move along to Townsend, shall we? Nashoba Publishers apparently has a dog in that fight as well.

Dan Murphy is the Townsend Town Clerk and the incumbent two-term Selectman. Townsend has a very painful history of Selectman shenanigans too long to go into here, but suffice it to say that some folks in this town think there is a conflict of interest when the Town Clerk is also a Selectman.

Fair enough, so what about the challenger?

Maureen Denig is a local business owner who has served the town in various capacities on town boards and charitable organizations. By all accounts she seems a very qualified, personable candidate. Disclosure: I did not support Ms. Denig in this election, but I absolutely do not support the opinion of Nashoba Publications that

These anti-Murphy votes are also anti-Townsend

Unbelievable. It gets even more nefarious:

The vast majority of townspeople pretty much ignore what goes on in a Town Hall. Though the demands of everyday life are understood and shared by all, to ignore the seat of your town’s government is done at your peril.

Cue the scary music.

It’s hard enough to get people to come out to vote, but to hector them will only make them tune out more and vote even less.

Listen, I live in this town and you know what I hear? People want change. They want government that works, that gets along and gets things accomplished.

I sincerely wished we had more choices than Murphy and Denig, but it’s very difficult to get good people to step up for these positions when they know there is the chance they will be hammered by the press.

For all the good that editorial did Dan Murphy. Maureen Denig won by a significant margin. I didn’t support Denig’s campaign, but now that she’s in, it’s in the best interests of the town that she is successful, so I wish her well.

What I also wish is that our local newspaper would stick to what they should do best. Inform us about events happening in our towns and give us good objective information about policies and issues that effect us. Not partisan propaganda.