Semantics Over Substance
July 17,2013
Michele Robins
5:36 PM
A CAREFULLY-WORDED MISSIVE FROM THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS’ COUNSEL PUTS VILLAGE RESIDENTS “ON NOTICE” THAT IT’S SEMANTICS OVER SUBSTANCE AT THE LOCAL NEWS OUTLET.
The words used by Mayor Paul Aronsohn when he asked to have a nominally unflattering opinion piece in The Ridgewood News checked for “accuracy” seem to be more important to both him and the paper than the monumentally appalling fact that he is so very thin skinned that an intervention was necessary. Whether it was to “withdraw”, “not to publish” or to “confirm the veracity” of the Letter in question makes little difference to those villagers who have seen the all-too-frequent partisan side of our mayor. The fact is….whatever words were used, the letter was held. You did it Paul…you know it, The Ridgewood News knows it and we know it……man up.
It is reprehensible that he interfered with a citizen’s letter to the editor. This was not a news article. This was a letter expressing an opinion. We all read the letter in question – as it was printed here on the blog. The letter should have been printed, and in fact it had been accepted for publication and was only pulled after Mr. Aronsohn “contacted” the Ridgewood News. The fact that the editor was willing to publish the exact letter the following week shows you that it was not a controversial letter at all. Word is that the editor was away that week, and someone below him made the panic decision to pull the letter.
This is bullying, plain and simple. The mayor should be made to admit publicly that he did this.
Who at The Ridgewood News is in charge of First Amendment allocation? Whoever made that unbelievably imperious decision needs to be fired. Cancel your subscriptions folks because this paper has the credibility of PRAVDA. Their in-house counsel, Mr. Thompson, should re-read his letter to the blog because “thorough, objective and IMPARTIAL reporting” does not look anything like squelching, tampering and censorship. The Ridgewood News is in a bit of a pickle considering that the mayor has let it be known that he DID ask a citizen to withdraw a letter and he DID make a request of the paper to withhold said letter. There were no “facts” to be “confirmed”..it was an OPINION piece. I would “strongly urge” The Ridgewood {News} to be more cautious with the accuracy of future [statements.]”, to use Mr. Thompson’s words. The paper has unwisely allowed Mayor Aronsohn to single-handedly destroy their integrity and compromise their reputation. That speaks volumes. Our mayor needs to make a PUBLIC apology to the letter writer and the citizens he serves at the next council meeting and in that ridiculous column The Ridgewood News has so generously allowed him (oh, and at his self-serving coffee klatsches..whatever happened to “Coffee with the COUNCIL?) His behavior has been and continues to be nothing short of an embarrassment.