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Saugerties Post-Star
Editor's
Notebook
Editorial, by Heather Plonchak
TO PRINT OR NOT TO PRINT
Recently, I was approached by
two members of the Saugerties Board of Education,
asking me to discontinue the Heidcamp Report in the
Post Star. Each of these trustees presented me with
personal emails that they had received on separate
occasions from Mr. Heidcamp, that they considered
to be bullying and/or threatening.
I understand that the board has
been put in a tight spot by Mr. Heidcamp, and that
his column upsets them, and I sympathize with them.
I understand the difficulty involved with trying to
perform a job in the midst of public scrutiny.
However, I feel that to
discontinue the Heidcamp Report for the reasons
mentioned above would not only be censorship, but
would force the Post Star to choose sides in a
personal disagreement between a handful of
individuals. Would this continue the tradition of
fairness, unbiased reporting, and integrity that
this paper has upheld for almost 130 years? The
Post Star has, for as long as I can remember, been
a community newspaper, happily accepting any
submissions by members of the community who wish to
share information with our readership. We have an
extremely small editorial staff, because
approximately 75 percent of the content of our
newspaper is written by Saugerties citizens. If we
were to deny Mr. Heidcamp that privilege, would we
still be able to call ourselves Your Hometown
Community Newspaper?
It has also been alleged by a
certain member of the board of education, that Mr.
Heidcamp's name on the Post Star masthead implies
that he is a Post Star employee and/or that the
Post Star shares his opinion. Mr. Heidcamp is
listed on our masthead as a contributor. This
simply means that he contributes to the content of
our newspaper on a regular basis. He is not an
employee of the Post Star, or of Gatehouse Media
(The corporation that retains ownership of the Post
Star), nor do we pay him for writing his column. In
fact, no one listed on the Masthead as a
contributor is a paid employee of the Post Star.
The page that Mr. Heidcamp's column appears on is
clearly marked Opinion, and a disclaimer appears on
the bottom of the page, clearly stating that his
opinion is his own, and not necessarily that of the
Post Star.
Members of the school board have
also approached me to point out that Mr. Heidcamp
is presenting false information as fact. One such
example is the list of administrative salaries that
appeared in a recent installment of the Heidcamp
Report. Mr. Heidcamp has provided the Post Star
with documentation of these figures, provided to
him by the Superintendent's office through the FOIL
process. To his credit, Mr. Heidcamp has also
provided the Post Star with documentation of all
information appearing in his column. When this
information has been unclear, or left us, at the
Post Star, with further questions, we have done our
own fact checking, which did include a phone call
to the Radisson Hotel in Orlando,
Florida.
In the interest of fairness, and
to uphold our status as a fair and unbiased
community newspaper, the Post Star would gladly
extend the same courtesy to the board of education
or to the school administrators, and will print any
rebuttal or other information they would like to
submit. If the board would like a weekly column,
that can also be arranged. However, the board of
education has opted not to do so, and has chosen
instead to remain silent.
The board's silence was one that
I agreed with at first, for to rebut Mr. Heidcamp,
or any other writer, would simply entice a weekly
dialogue between the two, which is something the
board wanted to avoid. However, the public's
attention is now piqued, the elections are over,
and the ball is in the board of education's court.
The board's silence is now beginning to work
against them, and those citizens that were
originally just curious, are now becoming angered
and are expecting answers to the various issues
brought up by the Heidcamp Report.
These issues have already been
put into the spotlight and, at this point, to
silence Mr. Heidcamp would not help. Silencing Mr.
Heidcamp will not make the public forget that these
issues exist, and will not quell their desire for
answers.
By approaching the Post Star in
an attempt to stop the Heidcamp Report, the board
is putting this paper in an unfair position. The
Post Star is simply a conduit for the community to
use to share information. One that does not and
will not choose sides. The request for the Heidcamp
Report to stop, should be taken up with Mr.
Heidcamp himself.
Meanwhile, the board needs to
address the public and regain their trust by
satisfying their need for answers. Whether the
board chooses to do this in the form of a newspaper
article, or through comments during a board
meeting, is unimportant, as long as the silence
comes to an end, and the lines of communication
with the public are reopened.
In closing, I sympathize with
the school board for the position they have found
themselves in, however, the Post Star will continue
to print the Heidcamp Report, for to do otherwise
would go against too much of what this paper stands
for.
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- Saugerties Post-Star
Editorial
July 2006
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