Paper's rationalization for shoddy coverage exposed!

I've written several entries (such as this one) complaining about The Post-Star's grossly inadequate coverage of the Glens Falls' mayoral race. All spring and summer, the monopoly daily gave blanket and near exclusive coverage to Republican candidates Bud Taylor and Peter McDevitt (though coverage of the latter was usually critical). Democrat Roy Akins and independents Esmond Lyons and Bill Berg were virtually ignored by the paper, except for token mentions that they were running.

Throughout, the paper rationalized their exclusionary coverage by pointing out that Taylor and McDevitt were facing off in a Republican primary in mid-September so it was logical to cover only them for months and months on end. Once the primary was over, readers were solemnly assured, the paper would do its civic duty and actually cover all the candidates.

The GOP primary was held over three weeks ago. In that time period, the paper did a token, if unflattering, profile on Berg (so they can say they haven't completely ignored him). I haven't seen a single article featuring Lyons or Akins... or even including them.

Glens Falls is one of the few towns in the area where most of the races for elective office are actually contested. So how come The Post-Star has decided to offer such miniscule coverage of the mayoral race and non-existent coverage of races for the city's Common Council? I've never seen the paper provide such shoddy coverage of a city election since I've been paying attention.

Are the candidates boring? Ask them questions on important issues. Are they infuriatingly vague, like Roy Akins? Press them to get specific. Just because a candidate doesn't make for great copy (or dumbed-down copy) doesn't mean you pretend he isn't running. None of them may be as visionary as Mandela or as charismatic as Reagan, but one of them is going to be the next mayor of Glens Falls regardless.


Maybe instead of thinking up enough anonymous cheap shots to transform into a blog, perhaps the venerable Fourth Estaters could ring up Lyons, Akins and Berg and talk to them about their opinions on critical issues facing Glens Falls. I'm sure this amateur hack could find the phone numbers for them.