Editorial: Being Critical Part of Media Role
Gardner Magazine is often criticized for being overly positive about the Chair City. We agree. This publication has a “cup is half full” approach. It’s often easy to be positive as current Mayor Nicholson has been instrumental in turning things around. But in the rush to complete badly needed tasks on the to-do list, certain items get overlooked.
99% of City employees are great and do their jobs very well. But when they don’t, we believe accountability is key. Even if someone just got appointed and the City would owe them 2 years pay, in my opinion it is shortsighted to keep them on the payroll. Cut them loose no matter what it costs because the “good” employees don’t like it when a bad performer is allowed to remain. And it can be argued that the damage they may cause more than offsets the immediate costs of letting them go. The same goes for Boards and Commissions, some of which are admittedly hard to staff. Even so, if a Board Chair mistreats a member of the public they should be gone. In my opinion, such a situation happened recently. We expressed our strongest concerns very privately but heard nothing back. Our public editorial comments were a bit watered down, our outrage tempered with a bit of restraint.
Years ago when local newspapers still did editorials and letters to the editor were published officials had to respond. When I used to fill in for Ken Ash on WGAW’s Party Line as a 20 year old, if a businessman was mistreated at a meeting, there would have been many calls and the official would either apologize, resign, or be terminated. City Councilors openly and publicly criticized each other’s positions and it was very healthy for democracy. Today, Social Media fills some of the void, but unfortunately many negative comments are inaccurate or simply false so people tend to take things with a grain of salt and call it “unwanted drama.”
Gardner Magazine will continue to be positive most all of the time because positivity is better than negativity and 99% of the time it is warranted. But, we will also hold public officials to account for their actions and sometimes we will even be wrong in the assessment, but we pledge to bring you accurate information in the form of AUDIO of meetings and full PRESS RELEASES so you can make up your own mind. Facts are facts, but almost everyone has a different opinion about a given situation.
Email your comments to News@GardnerMagazine.com.