Mister Tredyffrin and Friends

This post is part of a series dealing with decisions made by our local newspapers this week:

• Part 1: Does Republican Candidate Tom Like Farm Animals?
• Part 2: All Hail C.T.
• Part 3: Debbie Nails Yale
• Part 4: An Editorial Decision

Art Post and Kevin Mahoney’s Press Release?
Not News.

On Sunday the TTDems announced in a press release that Art Post and Kevin Mahoney, a Democrat and a Republican, have endorsed each other for School Board in Region 2. One would think that this would be Big News. Of the three candidates running, only two get a seat. Two of those three candidates are Republican. And yet, the Democrat and one of the Republicans have decided that they will support each other, to the exclusion of the other Republican, Debbie Bookstaber. What’s more, the TTDems announced that they will support Kevin Mahoney, a Republican, in addition to Art Post. That’s a big thing, right?

Well, apparently not, according to Main Line Life and the Suburban and Wayne Times. They both eagerly accepted this press release, and yet the story does not appear in their papers. Huh? Rumor has it that these two papers were unable to reach Kevin Mahoney for confirmation of the press release.

They couldn’t contact Mahoney? Baloney. They had several days, and their crack staff couldn’t track down the president of the school board, the Senior VP and Chief Administrative Officer of the $3.4 billion organization Pensylvannia Health System? Give me a break.

The TTGOP Blog

I am simply floored by the papers this week. In spite of all the hard work of the TTDems in rooting out the problems and bringing them to light, educating themselves and the community, bringing excited, energetic and eminently qualified candidates to the table, and building bridges between the parties and with the local newspapers - in spite of all of this, we find ourselves stymied by the fourth estate. Actively impeded. It’s downright un-American.

One thing is clarified by the actions of our newspapers. Many months ago the TTGOP’s web site inexplicably went off the internet. Most of us just assumed that a new, improved site was in the offing, and it would appear shortly, probably with great fanfare. It never arrived. Then we began to wonder if the TTGOP would bother to respond online to the harsh facts presented by the TTDems web site and this blog. That never happened, either.

Well, if we weren’t convinced before, it is certainly clear now. The Main Line Life and the Suburban and Wayne Times are the blog of the TTGOP. The TTGOP web site is the newspapers’ web site. Why don’t they just install a domain redirect and be done with it? Maybe a real paper which has not abandonded its roots in objective journalism, like, say, the Philadelphia Inquirer, will notice this travesty in reporting and help shine a light on the problem. The public definitely needs to know.

Wake up, people! Is this the kind of “totalitarian democracy” you want to live in?

It’s almost like George Orwell’s Animal Farm, isn’t it?
Republican Candidate Tom might like that.