To the Editor:
For a couple of years in the late 70s, as second jobs, my wife and I reported on local news for a smalltown New Jersey paper near Trenton, so I am somewhat familiar with that level of publication and how editors and owners function.
Thus, when I read owner/Publisher Art Hall’s “mission statement” for the Herald, I found most of it very consistent with good journalistic small circulation standards, but unfortunately dissonant with others.
He says that the purpose is to “factually report on the events and trends that affect the readers,” which the Herald does so for local issues, events, people being awarded or police blotters, etc., but those with especially significant national things which affect all citizens, ergo the readers of the Herald, the Herald doesn’t mention.
What things are they? Well, for starters, virtually all the many conspiracy theories, climate change denials, misinformation on science coming from the right.
That 40% of Republicans now think that violence against the government is legitimate.
That 70% of Republicans currently believe that Biden won the election through fraud despite virtually all evidence to the contrary.
That the lives of Democratic politicians, election officials of both parties, and their families are routinely harassed and threatened by members of the right-wing, and sometimes by Republican members of Congress for simply standing by the evidence.
That our District 2 representative Van Drew actively voted to overthrow a constitutionally valid presidential election Jan. 6, 2021, despite it having authorization from all state legislations and countless favorable court decisions.
Still, to my knowledge, he has not admitted that Biden won legitimately. In fact, in a recent interview in the AC Press, he modified his position to “accepting” the election, but still questions its ‘fairness’ and has the audacity to repeat the party meme that Democrats are ‘politicizing’ what is probably the most political event in recent history – the mass invasion of the Capitol building.
I consider it a dereliction of duty for any publisher not to stand up and be counted about these and other issues of equal importance that affect our lives now and the future of our nation. All responsible citizens should, but especially those who have been entrusted to control the very powerful platform of media.
I realize that Cape May County has 32,000 Republican to 18,500 Democrat registered voters, and to take a stance on the important issues just mentioned may make some uncomfortable and may even cause the Herald to lose some advertisement. However, it is time to choose between God and mammon.
These should not be party issues. They are not opinions or points of view. These are facts and Mr. Hall claims that “facts are facts.” We can debate whether to support the BBB bill, but there should be no debate about whether we should allow elements to overthrow a valid election and whether climate change needs to be addressed now.
Rarely, if ever, do I see the Herald stand up against reprehensible acts and blatant falsehoods.
Noble words of purpose for the Herald from Mr. Hall are one thing. What knowledgeable, responsible publishers should do is another. I prefer the latter.
– BRUCE ALLEN
Del Haven
