HT Manipulated Into Character Assassination of Vic Farkas

Kurt Van der Dussen and the Herald Times once again show their lack of journalistic integrity by printing a smear story about Vic Farkas, the former County Surveyor. The article was based solely on information that was produced at a recent County Council meeting by Kevin Enright, the new County Surveyor. It is interesting how his report managed to be the only newsworthy story to come out of that meeting. Obviously character assassination plays well in Mr. Enright's circles as he attempted to destroy the credibility of his predecessor. Mr. Enright’s actions were both inappropriate and unprofessional. Unfortunately, if Mr. Enright’s past is any indication of what the future holds, we will more than likely have to endure this type of political mudslinging for the next four years. It is even more unfortunate that the HT editorial staff didn’t recognize or didn’t care that it was simply being manipulated into delivering this political propaganda to the masses. Kevin Enright was the most caustic and denigrating of all the candidates in this past election. He has personally and professionally attacked Vic Farkas on several occasions with slanderous if not libelous accusations. Vic Farkas’ spending was within his budget, a budget that he managed to reduce each year to save the taxpayers of Monroe County money while serving as the County Surveyor. The recent accusation of a “spending spree” is rather ironic since it is widely known that Mr. Enright did the same thing to Vic Farkas upon his departure four years ago only to the tune of several thousand dollars of unbudgeted and unencumbered funds. This type of petty behavior is unacceptable as an elected official and furthermore, this type of information is certainly not material for a front-page expose’.