Monday, September 24, 2007

A CALL FOR "BALANCED COVERAGE" IN THE TRIB REPORTING PRACTICES

Where's the balance?
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Voters deserve better from the Trib than "Whispers" items when it comes to this year's county commissioners election ("Whispers," Sept. 16 and PghTrib.com). They deserve details of the candidates' positions and records and they most certainly deserve balanced coverage.
Sunday's "Whispers" unfairly characterized our campaign efforts as "name-calling." In sharing information with the Trib about our challengers, Kim Ward and George Dunbar, we questioned their knowledge of county government and their qualifications.
We were responding to the claims of Dunbar, who held a press conference in which he was flat wrong about the state of the county's finances. The other challenger, Ward, missed the opportunity to do the right thing and correct him, and actually supported his misstatements.
Our challengers issue releases full of false information and get full coverage from the Trib. We point out the truth, justifiably point out their records, and are relegated to the back pages. Voters deserve balanced coverage.

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Tom Balya, Westmoreland County commissioner
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Tom Ceraso, Westmoreland County commissioner

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