Our Wednesday post about the Bellefontaine mayor generated a lot of interest and commentary. So I forwarded the link to the Bellefontaine Examiner, thinking it might be of interest to them, but not really expecting a response.
Well, we did get a response, and it is quite revealing as to the supposed objectivity of the small town newspaper. The following is the complete response.
Of course the post generated a lot of traffic and emotion, you threw a bunch of red meat at a group of judgmental, conservative bigots.
Any opportunity to make a Democratic mayor in a small town look bad…Tell me, can you confirm the Brannon’s old dishwasher wasn’t defective? I mean, “it looked fine.”
You third-party political blog would better service its readership with some analysis concerning abuses of government assistance at the very top. Million dollar subsidies to oil companies, tax loopholes that allow millionaires to be taxed less than you or me, etc…
Your work is small-minded and simplistic; hate on average Americans, a public servant no less, for utilizing a decades-old federal nutrition program for children, but ignore the kinds of top-down abuses that have contributed to cratering the economy and keeping middle class wages flat.
What a joke.
Nate Smith
Examiner Staff Writer
nsmith@examiner.org
(937) 592-3060 Ext. *118
Mr. Smith contends that if you are concerned about the rising level of abuse of government assistance in this country, then you are judgmental bigots.
Mr. Smith says that our post was small-minded and hateful. Mayor Brannon routinely criticizes Republicans on his Facebook page. His rant against Mitt Romney was not unique. He is a politician, and he is out there attacking the opposition party on a regular basis.
That’s fine. This is a free country and Mayor Brannon has every right to exercise his right of free speech. However, he has to expect that he is going to get responses to his political speech.
We simply offered a counter-argument to the mayor’s public statements, and criticized him in a likewise manner. Is Mayor Brannon untouchable? Is any opposing response to his political speech automatically hateful and small-minded? According to the Bellefontaine Examiner, apparently it is, judging by their response to our post.
If you insist on calling our work hateful and small-minded, then please be consistent and call out Adam Brannon’s political speech as just as hateful, Mr. Smith.
Given such a surprising response from the Examiner, Logan County residents now have no reason to believe that they are getting fair and objective reporting from their hometown newspaper.