Civility forum moves forward to squelch public dissent
February 25,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ed Koch once said ,”If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”
But not according to Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group, who insisted that the whole problem is that since people have found their voice through social media they have come to so many different opinions civil discourse has fallen .Things were so much better when North Jersey Media had a monopoly on public discussion and could always dictate terms . Borg implied that elites like himself we the only ones qualified to make those decisions. Borg pointed out how this blog and its anonymous posters are the greatest enemy to not only American Democracy but to the dominance of North Jersey Media Group. While I was rather flattered that the Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group thought this blog shook the very foundations of civil discourse and was viewed as the barbarians at the gate , I would suggest the far larger problem might be the totally bias, and slip shot reporting of his Media Empire. Borg set the tone for the evening which came down silencing critics and reasserting the elitist “we know better than you ” , so time to be quite .
So the Mayor hosted his panel discussion on Civility in Public Discourse at Ridgewood Public Library on Tuesday . Panelists included Lynne Algrant, Councilwoman, Englewood Stephen Borg, Publisher / President, North Jersey Media Group Jacqueline Luthcke, Captain, Ridgewood Police Department Robert Sommer, Public Affairs Executive / Jersey City Official and the headliner James Tedesco, Bergen County Executive . The facilitator David Fine, Rabbi, Temple Israel and yes it did appear to be a Democrat love fest.The Councilwoman went a bit off script and focused on the idea that public servants have to set the standards an idea we can fully agree with , next came Mr Borg with a rousing to the point ;its all about anonymous bloggers , the Ridgewood Police Captain gave a bit of confused speech about dealing with the public yet managing to stay on script and you guessed blame those mean and uncooperative anonymous bloggers ,to me she was most disappointing , because as a Police officer dealing with the public in often less than optimal settings her input on those situations would have been most instructive. Robert Sommer from Jersey City , basically stuck to the script but added it was ok him to exaggerate the consequences of decisions , but its not ok for you , yes he said that .
All four also hit on “respect” and “the benefit of the doubt” , humm the benefit of the doubt , well that lost me with the Village Hall renovation fiasco, $500, 000 golden toilets , turf fields in flood zones and my personal favorite “Quartergate ” . As for respect , respect has to be earned , and also given so thats simple . The headliner James Tedesco, Bergen County Executive spoke well touched on some of what the others said and surprise no comments on anonymous bloggers . Perhaps he came for a meet and greet or perhaps those same anonymous bloggers, supported his police merger plan long before he knew he had it. In any case politics aside he made a good impression , and was clearly not the fabled Paramus hot head of yesteryear, speaking on how personal tragedy had giving him a softer world view.
These idiots all think they know better than the general public, guess this is one reason stopped getting the record.This group in general strikes me as arrogant as hell and a couple of them with no clue what so ever as to why they are even there. I also wonder how many of them are anonymous bloggers.
Vote for Paul,Albert and Gynn for 2016. They and their comrades know what good for Ridgewood.
i have not been able to attend the the so-called Civility Forums initiated by Paul Aronsohn of Ridgewood. I am sure that most of us would like to have the volume lowered in public discourse. The irony is that much of the high volume public discourse is perpetrated by politicians, pundits, and the print and electronic news media. I agree with the blogger that it is elitist that elected officials, a lobbyist, and a newspaper publisher would use their position and power to imply that anonymous bloggers are in someway destructive to the democratic process. I should not have to remind the participants that history is riddled with people in power who have sought to control and re-write the public narrative to their satisfaction. Mr. Tedesco and Paul Aronsohn should read Robert’s Rules of Order to maintain orderly public meetings. Public opinion, free speech, and dissent are the domaine of all the people including those who choose to remain anonymous.
Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group. Chris Harris reporter for the Record De facto Press Secretary for our Mayor and of course our Mayor former Press Secretary to Gov. Mc Grievy. What do you think folks. Do you think your get the full story from North Jersey Media or is it slanted towards our Mayor and his deeds.
Who gave the Invocation? The Mayor has to cover all the bases.
Yes jjj, it does sound as if some Gruber-like sentiments about the general public were expressed at the most recent event of Mr. Aronsohn’s series of discussions designed to lay the groundwork for the Obama administration’s plans for naked and direct government censorship of the political speech of individual citizens.
The general public, as a whole, has and regularly displays, far more integrity than do, as a whole, the self-appointed elites in this country. That’s why the following sentiment has always rung so true:
“I would sooner be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand members of the faculty of Harvard.”
― William F. Buckley Jr., Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist
Is there a liberal slant to The Record’s news coverage? A number of readers who participated in recent telephone interviews with our market research team said they think there is.
The focus of interviews conducted over 10 days in March centered on what “jobs” readers want fulfilled by The Record. “Tell me the truth” stood out as a key job, but several readers added that they want the truth objectively – not from a reporter’s personal angle. That led to expanded conversations.
“A good portion of these people feel The Record is politically liberal,” said Joe Ferrara, market research manager. “Some of that may mirror a broader perception about media generally having a political agenda. But some people made the distinction between The Record’s editorial pages and news content, saying ‘Your opinion pages are sneaking over into your news articles’.”
Read more at https://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/A_paper_in_CT_goes_on_a_witch-hunt_–_for_newsroom_liberals.html#xjGwfUlopZKSsZ78.99
the Record is only “worth” purchasing for the convenience of having supermarket inserts delivered to the front door….
Hillary, pining for Aronsohn-style “civil discourse”…as if! Sounds suspiciously like Borg with her complaint about non-standard media sources.
Hillary Clinton Blames ‘Different Media’ For Dividing Country
by Charlie Spiering/Breitbart
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained that “different media” are dividing the country, making it impossible for people to even have a conversation with each other.
Clinton made her remarks yesterday in an interview with Re/Code’s Kara Swisher. She criticized America’s “partisan bunkers” for getting in the way of confronting tough issues like racism, sexism and homophobia.
“Nobody wants to associate with anybody who doesn’t agree with them politically,” she said. “You can’t have a conversation, people won’t listen to each other, they listen to different media, and those different media (outlets) tell different stories about the very same thing that you’re watching unfold in front of your eyes.”
The lack of common ground, Clinton asserted, was making it more difficult to get things done politically.
“You cannot run a great country like that, and this is the greatest country and it’s time we start acting like it and working like it again,” she said.
After waging partisan battles in the White House as First Lady, Clinton explained that she learned to be less partisan when she was elected a senator from New York.
“When I worked in the Senate I was very much somebody who would work across the aisle, look for opportunities to do that,” she said. “Because I don’t think I have all the right ideas, I don’t think my party has all the right ideas.”