Why Do People At The HT Say Stupid Things

The editorial in today’s Herald Times newspaper labeled “Ellington doesn’t speak for county” is one of the nastiest editorials that I can ever recall out of the HT and it has Kurt Van der Dussen written all over it. This is the same newspaper that insists that everyone seeking political office or already in office be civil at all times or face their own special variety of journalistic ire. The hypocrisy is so blatantly obvious when they don’t apply their own rules of etiquette and civil tone in their own newspaper. Just a couple of days ago Mr. Van der Dussen was giving credit to Jeff Ellington for defeating the Food & Beverage Tax enabling legislation with his headline “Ellington sticks a fork in the food, beverage tax”. Then in today’s editorial he writes, “The loss of $2.5 million in revenue to our area also doesn’t seem to concern Ellington. Who by the way should not be given too much credit in this episode”. If Ellington is not due any credit in this instance, why write such a demeaning and hateful editorial? Why would a newspaper stoop to calling someone a “loser”, not once but twice in the same article? It went on to state “He is not a politically powerful man” and yet they headline two articles with his name within one week and tied it to the defeated legislation, sounds to me like his efforts were not in vain.

The last sentence of this editorial indicates just how off base they’re thinking is on this subject, “He is a willing player in this political farce, but he’s no mastermind”. The moral to this story is that thank God we live in a country where any citizen can lobby their government to whatever extent their conscious guides them, that truley is what separates US from them. As a taxpaying citizen he should have every right to lobby his government representatives, let’s hope the HT doesn't consider this right to be a farce. In this case Mr. Ellington might just be a better citizen than most as he at the very least fought for what he thought was right rather than sitting at home doing nothing. As the paper so poignantly editorialized, Mr. Ellington is no longer an elected representative of Monroe County but that does not preclude his rights to lobby legislators as a citizen. Two past articles come to mind to reflect the HT’s double standards. The first article was about an email from the former mayor John Fernandez to Council Member Andy Ruff. Andy Ruff’s comments were along the lines that he didn’t need any input from John Fernandez. The newspaper went on to chastise Ruff for disregarding Fernandez; if nothing else he was a citizen of the community. Why is Jeff Ellington any less of a citizen than John Fernandez? Another editorial came out just before the last election when the HT chastised republican candidates for their “uncivil” remarks on the campaign trail, it included a line that went something like “why do candidates say stupid things?” In this instance the HT could not have been more uncivil to a citizen of our community. The question that needs asked in this instance is why do people at the HT say such stupid things?