Can we pursue a civil political debate, if not a rational debate?
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By Andy Howell
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em>"You guys are a piece of work over there. This article ... front page? ... The suit doesn't have merit, but that point didn't make the front page. But the sick part of all this is that you ran it today, Oct. 3. Mayor Godfrey buries his father today. Very insensitive and don't act like you didn't know. Your paper owes the family an apology."
-- E-mail to the Standard-Examiner
"What has occurred on the pages of the Standard-Examiner demonstrates Boss Godfrey's continuing ability to control the agenda -- for a couple of days at least. And to the extent that the past two days' (lawsuit) stories have 'rattled' Van Hooser supporters, these folks are themselves complicit in keeping this story alive in Boss Godfrey's House Propaganda Organ, the Standard-Examiner."
-- Posting on Weber County Forum blog
It is not unusual for people with different political viewpoints to read entirely opposing biases into the same news story.
However, in the highly polarized political landscape of Ogden, it has reached a new level.
Every story we do on Ogden politics and government is dissected and criticized as being politically biased for, or against, Mayor Matthew Godfrey. With the electronic medium of blogs and e-mails, these charges are circulated faster than you can say "Mayor Godfrey is a (fill in the blank)."
Yes, the mayor is the central figure in this political drama. Many residents either hate him or love him. Like U.S. troops patrolling the streets of Baghdad, we find ourselves in between these warring factions.
Ogden has always had a love-hate relationship with the Standard-Examiner. Comments involving the "Substandard Exaggerator" go back decades. Some residents still haven't forgiven us for dropping "Ogden" from the nameplate. While Ogden residents represent only 25 percent of our overall circulation, they are the source of 99.9 percent of the whining.
This year the comments have gotten out of hand, with personal attacks being leveled against individuals who work for the paper.
The atmosphere took a dramatic turn with the advent of what is known as the "gondola issue." Because the newspaper's editorial board took no position on this complex proposal, and instead adopted a wait-and-see attitude, those on both sides of the issue launched public attacks against the newspaper.
The backers of the proposal felt the newspaper should have endorsed the project to convince the fence-sitters to get on board and make it a reality. The opponents felt the newspaper should publicly condemn the project to put an end to the idea.
Critics on both sides consistently tried to bully the newspaper in efforts to control the message. There were threats of advertising or reader boycotts being organized. That's when the name-calling got personal and the tactics have carried over to the current election campaign.
"We can successfully sidestep the Ogden Standard-Examiner. Here's how: Banner after banner hung from local businesses on our side all prominently displayed on building fronts and LARGE. These banners just point to a website appropriately named and purposely slightly inflammatory, that explains our points ... Examples: StandardExaminerIsManipulatingYou.com, StandardExaminerUnfair.com ..."
-- E-mail from resident to mayor obtained through an unrelated GRAMA request
"The SubStandard refuses to tell the truth about the lying little mayor. We are going to have to start our own newspaper using the resources of the Weber County Forum and put you out of business."
-- Voice mail to the Standard-Examiner
I've always maintained that as long as people are talking about us, then they are reading us. However, we have become the central point of discussion. I had to caution my staff recently on how to reply to e-mails because many of their responses were ending up in threads being circulated through mass e-mailings.
Recipients dissected the responses, applying their own interpretation. In some cases a simple acknowledgment of receipt of an e-mail had been turned into either affirmation or condemnation of the charges being leveled in the original e-mail to the reporter. Critics have also singled out editors and reporters with ugly name-calling and unfounded accusations.
"Another thing for you (expletive) Stand-Ex fags (Porter, Greiling, Andy, etc.) to consider ..."
-- Posting on Weber County Forum
Some critics have turned to complaining to the publisher and ownership over what they perceive as bias in our news coverage.
The last straw came recently when one person actually manufactured an incident and then complained to Publisher Lee Carter about the unprofessionalism of the reporter and newspaper. I don't know if this fabrication was intentional or not. After the false accusation was exposed, I e-mailed the complainer asking for an explanation. He never responded.
My staff members have conducted themselves in a much more professional way than many so-called community leaders and activists this campaign season. Some of Ogden's "upstanding citizens" have been involved in antics that could be considered juvenile and petty, at best, mean and even bizarre at worst. Such as:
* Lurking about stealing campaign signs.
* Calling and harassing people who write letters to the editor if they disagree with them.
* Posting vicious comments and character assassinations anonymously on blogs.
* Sending out mass e-mails from lists that include out of town visitors attacking individuals and the newspaper.
* Spying and intercepting e-mails.
* Confronting and harassing reporters and editors in restaurants and other public settings.
This type of conduct does not reflect well on Ogden. A fellow Salt Lake journalist met me recently with the greeting "How are things in ODDen?"
We have tried to maintain the high road and stay away from covering news stories that would involve finger-pointing and name-calling rather than issues. Sometimes such stories are newsworthy, but with the current political climate there are just too many to cover.
I hope things settle down after the election. Politics doesn't have to be civil. But it should at least be rational.
Howell is managing editor. You can contact him at 625-4210 or at ahowell@standard.net.
