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Partisan Journalism by the Trib
Posted
5-29-2007
The primary election is over, and it is
interesting that the Tribune-Review and its anointed Republican
candidates are making so much of the votes received by Virginia
Oplinger in the Democratic Primary. I really hope they keep
thinking the Primary results mean so much and do not look back
four years ago. I also hope they think we ran full fledged
campaigns in the Primary and that is all we have to offer in the
General Election.
Interestingly, four years ago, Virginia received
more than 11,000 votes and Rick Wajdic more than 10,000 votes.
In that election I received 23,000 and Tom Ceraso 20,000. So out
of 64,000 votes cast, 21,000 went against us (about 33%). This
time, out of 57,000 votes cast, only 12,000-plus votes were cast
against us (22%). Frankly, considering we have a Republican
newspaper that has redefined the word "partisan" while whining
everyday about something in county government, the fact that Tom
Ceraso and I still received 43,000 votes is okay with me. Any
candidate would like all the votes, but we all know that just
doesn't happen.
Yet on the Republican side -- with a party
endorsement, constant cheerleading, an endorsement by the
Tribune-Review and outspending their closest challenger by a 5
to 1 ratio -- the Republican winners had 30% of the votes cast
against them. So does that mean the Republican winners should be
concerned? Since the newspaper only consulted a noted Republican
advertising person, no one analyzed what the results mean to the
county Republican candidates. I know one thing for certain --
their primary was more divisive than ours. We are the big tent
party that occasionally has had factional disputes and a certain
segment of unhappy campers. But over time we've healed a lot of
the wounds from the days of Dick Vidmer and Ted Simon. We will
see how the wounds Republican Party insiders dealt out to people
like Jim Bortz and Mike Reese affect the fall election.
The question in my mind is, will the
Tribune-Review show one shred of journalistic integrity or will
they try to "Kukovich" us? That is what happened when the
Tribune-Review took up the cause of Kim Ward's protégé, Bob
Regola, to oust a true man of integrity, Allen Kukovich. The
million dollars of outside money used to smear Kukovich was one
thing, but the daily reinforcing of the Republican message, the
absolute lack of fair reporting, and the constant Republican
cheerleading by the carpetbaggers in the Tribune-Review's
editorial office had to be one of the worst cases of partisan
journalism in Pennsylvania political history. Allen made the
mistake of believing he was going to get a fair shake, and every
time he tried to get the truth out it was twisted by the
Tribune-Review to help Ward's protégé.
To people that pay attention to the integrity of
newspapers, the Tribune-Review has shown its true colors for
many years. We saw what it did to Bill Clinton, day after day,
for eight years. We saw the Ed Rendell results here versus other
neighboring counties with similar demographics, after the
Governor was slammed day after day for years. And, again, we
know what this newspaper did to Allen.
So the challenge ahead is clear. We will inform
voters of the truth about their county government. Things are
not perfect; they never have been or never will be. But the
progress that has been made allows us to continue to be a
leading county, not only in the region, but also in the
Commonwealth. It will be important this election year that
voters look at the abilities, experience and qualifications of
the respective candidates.
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