Newspaper failed to properly identify press release
Published 10:19 am Friday, June 20, 2008
By Staff
To the editor:
I am writing in response to a news story dated June 16, 2008, in the Dowagiac Daily News.
The story detailed the vandalism of campaign signs placed by a candidate for District Court judge.
I read the article in the online edition of the paper.
I cannot condone the destruction of property. I do, however, take offense to a few statements made in the article.
I take issue with the implication that supporters of the candidate's opponents are behind the vandalism.
The article states, "While they are entitled to their opinion as to whom they would prefer to be elected District Court judge, the damage to the campaign signs is a criminal act."
The article also states that criminals support the opponents, since "they would be more comfortable with a defense attorney on the bench as his or her perspective and professional experience is totally different than that of a former prosecutor ."
These are very big stretches of the known facts.
How does one campaign know how the vandals will vote?
The vandals may be juveniles who are unable to vote or "criminals" who don't care about the election, either.
It is likely that these people are more interested in upsetting the property owner instead of promoting the political opponent.
These people may not care about the election, but really wanted to make some point with the candidate, albeit in a very stupid way.
I also take exception to the newspaper for failing to identify this as a press release by the candidate's committee.
It reads as a very biased news story.
I get the impression that the words are known fact, or maybe the beliefs of the editorial staff.
Quotation marks were not present in the online version (I do not know if they existed in the print version).
I do not believe that a small local paper should be so politically biased, especially in an area with such a small population base.
The vandalism should be reported, the police should investigate and hopefully apprehend the culprits, but the Daily News should not print the negative statements implicating other candidates' supporters without clearly attributing those statements to the source.
Actually, the other candidates should have never been implicated in this story.
Negative campaigning is so unnecessary and undignified. The paper should do a better job of covering the local elections in a fair, unbiased manner for all candidates.
Edwardsburg