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We’re
Not Your Source
To
the Editor:
Thank
you for exposing the ever-righteous spin given by the Times
Union, the local poster child of an allegedly liberal
corporate media, to news reports out of Iraq. [“History in
the Making,” Comment, March 3] I cringe, as you do, each time
I read the TU’s headlines, systematically sugarcoated
with pretense of democracy for easier digestion by a public
craving for good news. I love this country, and it is painful
to watch it being led blindly to the abyss by its own media.
As you note, one of the more sinister ways mainstream newspapers
mislead their readers is by the stories not told. Ever wonder
why the TU rarely reported on the four-year-long community
opposition to a proposal by Besicorp to construct a giant
newsprint manufacturing plant in Rensselaer? Could it be that
it may benefit, due to its proximity to the plant, from lower-priced
newsprint and from a higher price for its old newspaper sold
as recyclables? If you can spell “conflict of interest,” here
is one of the most undercovered local stories for your annual
Project Censored.
There is, however, a more insidious way by which the local
press controls our destiny, and that’s in its role as kingmaker,
deciding who in the community is a leader, and who is not.
Thus, a couple of years ago, a dozen community organizers
in Rensselaer County reached out to County Executive Kathy
Jimino, offering our help and expertise to create a task force
that would address proactively issues of sprawl, historic
preservation, environmental conservation, and economic development.
We were frustrated and tired of fighting endlessly against
unwanted development and wanted the county to develop and
implement, in the spirit of the Smart Growth Communities legislation,
a master plan that would establish growth boundaries, identify
resources, and develop guidelines. Nothing radical about it;
this was all under the guidance of legislation passed by Gov.
Pataki.
We met with an aide to Jimino (she would not meet with us
in person) and offered a 12-point plan. We never heard back
from her. She knew we did not have enough political clout
to make demands, and simply ignored us. Why? Because the mainstream
press had never given us the recognition that would compel
elected officials to invite us to the negotiation table in
order to gain broad support, or else pay the price politically.
Indeed, on the few occasions when the media chooses to acknowledge
our existence, it refers to us as nimbys and greenies, naysayers
with an anti- economic development agenda, belittling us to
the eyes of the community, thus disqualifying us as reasonable
parties with standing and expertise. Eventually, we become
disillusioned, exhausted and broke, and are forced to drop
out. Who gets invited to an editorial board or a governmental
task force? Soft-spoken professors and polite heads of environmental
organizations and lobbying groups whose acceptance depends
on being noncritical, so-called experts who have never set
foot in the community they claim to know so well, never written
a flier and gone door to door, never spoken to locals or at
town-board meetings.
In this case, no task force was ever created, and the Smart
Growth legislation still has not been implemented in Rensselaer
County. So if you wonder why sprawl continues to plague our
communities, you may lay part of the blame on the editorial
board of your local newspapers. Intuitively, we know we are
being lied to. Still, it is not a futile exercise to reveal
the opaque ways it is being played out, as you courageously
did in your commentary. It reminds us that simply replacing
our representatives, election after election, out of frustration,
is only part of the solution. First, we need to replace those
news media that disenfranchise the very community they profess
to serve.
Eric
Daillie
Rensselaer County Greens/Historic Action Network
Troy
One
More for the Kitties
To
the Editor:
I
found Dr. Paul Barrows’ utopian response [“Look What the Cat
Dragged In,” Letters, March 3] to Darryl McGrath’s sensitive
and balanced article [“Go Forth, But Don’t Multiply,” Feb.
24] both deeply disturbing and extremely patronizing. If it
was unfortunate enough to have his views aired originally,
then to extend his tractarian doctrine for the complete letters
section in last week’s edition was beyond the pale. Of course
in a perfect world, cats (or any other animals) would not
be abandoned by a well-informed public, but, hello! Wake up
and smell the cat litter.
Dr. Barrows seeks to demonize these unfortunate creatures
as “alien predators,” and even more so as “reservoirs” for
disease and parasites. Continuing in this fine tradition of
demonizing a helpless and unenfranchised population, they
are free to be exploited at will. I find it deeply sinister
that Dr. Barrows wishes to definitively “mark” this marginalized
population and then declare a program of trapping, medical
experiments, and “euthanising.” Sound familiar? Take care,
for if these were people, not cats, we are but a feline step
from fascist Europe in the 1930’s.
We also have to fully confront the veiled threats of litigation,
and criticisms of the futility of the effort. These defenseless
creatures like all the weak and huddled masses need our compassionate
help, and I for one will defiantly continue to advocate on
their behalf. Frankly, if this is the best advice we can get
from the profession that avows to care for animals, then as
a people, we are in a far sadder state of affairs than we
realize.
Nigel
D. Johnson
Albany
 Clarification
In
the layout of a recent feature on the closing of the Bavarian
Chalet restaurant (“Time Is Up,” Jan. 13), we included a full-page
photograph of a drawing (reproduced above), which was hanging
on a restaurant wall, featuring a likeness of restaurant family
patriarch Franz Zwicklbauer and information on his soccer
club’s exploits. In our layout, the author’s signature was
cropped out of the photo; we would like to belatedly acknowledge
that the work was drawn by Hy Rosen, local artist and sculptor
and longtime editorial cartoonist for the Albany Times
Union. Rosen estimates that the drawing was done 30 or
so years ago as part of a regular TU feature called
Sports Spotlight.
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Columns
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