It's just not always possible to anticipate what will draw a reader's objections to something that made print.

A borough official wrote to me to register his serious objections to a sidebar article on council president John Messina ["Messina wants to join planners," The Phoenix, December 6]. He said that it was "classless and...unprofessional," and that I had become "a very accomplished one-sided reporter."

His first objection was centered on a quote from Messina, who had said that when he had served on the commission previously, "We wound up making it one of the most respected commissions, perhaps the best, in Chester County. We worked to make the plans of applicants [who come before the commission] better. We can do that again.” My correspondent was irate that Messina's characterization of the planning commission's work was allowed to go unchallenged in the article.

His second objection was that Messina's intention to return to the commission, announced with a hint that he might try to persuade outgoing councilman Tim Daly to do likewise, did not immediately send me to the phone to get comments from the two incumbent commission members whose terms expire in 2008.

These are not unreasonable points. The article that would have resulted had I done what he thought I should, however, would not have been the one I thought fit to print December 6.

The purpose of the article was to follow up on what was by any measure a major political event: the stunning electoral upset of a sitting council president and long-prominent political figure. The headline over a pre-election summary of the race Messina lost read "David vs. Goliath in North Ward?" It was a headline my then-friendly correspondent liked. Well, Goliath he was and Goliath was out -- but what does Goliath do now?

I thought that my correspondent would have let Goliath groan, and let me report the groans. The public got to know of a recount considered (a live question around town: will he?) but dismissed, and of Messina's plans now that, for the first time in seven years, he doesn't have an appointment with that public every first-Tuesday-after-the-second-Monday. End of story.

When the incoming council anticipates commission appointments, and outgoing council president Messina's name is indeed under consideration, then I've got a story to write that will look like the one my correnspondent wants to see.

He had a third objection, though, and it was this: that, in the absence of a phone call from me to them, two planning commission members "woke in the morning to find that John intends kicking them off the PC." Whether or not that's an accurate description of what's going on here, it is nonetheless true that two incumbent public officials learned of an outgoing public official's intentions along with everybody else in town, over morning coffee.

Yup. That's right. They did.


Posted by
G.E. "Skip" Lawrence