Letter: Is the Daily Hampshire Gazette Fair and Balanced?
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I’m grateful for the Amherst Indy. It is, after all, independent, and a valuable source for information that some would rather see suppressed. However, I often feel like it’s preaching to the choir. Unfortunately, our local mainstream newspaper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, is anything but independent. Where Amherst is concerned, the Gazette has a reporting staff of one. Scott Merzbach is continually proving himself to be an apologist and cheerleader for the town’s power structure, which was put in place by the developer-backed political machine Amherst Forward. There is the occasional nod in the opinion pages to voices of opposition, but by and large, the insults and misinformation coming from the power structure go unchallenged and are generally reported as “news”.
The recent article headlined “Amherst officials highlight achievements, look ahead in State of the Town” is a case in point. It lists several of the recent developments in the town, many of which are laudable, but fails to even mention that some are controversial. It even resurrects Destination Amherst, a subject that we haven’t heard anything about in a while. The closest the article comes to acknowledging that there is any opposition to some of the town’s actions is quoting the town manager saying that “it’s all too easy to take potshots”. Is this letter that you’re reading right now a potshot, or is it a sincere and considered critique of the journalistic integrity of the Gazette?
The effusive praise piece in the Gazette fails to mention Amherst’s terrible roads, the laying off of teachers, the lack of a desperately needed new fire station and DPW building, for which shortcomings we pay the highest taxes in the region, nearly the highest in the state. The president of the Town Council has acknowledged that “budgeting is going to be tough,” but spending money on unnecessary projects like the destructive dressing up of the Jones Library and the North Common is going to make it tougher. Sure, the new North Common is nice, but I’d rather have foreign language instruction in the middle school.
Lou Conover
Lou Conover is a resident of Amherst
In my time as an employee and resident of Amherst I had experience with 4 different town managers prior to the current one. As memory serves, I don’t recall ever reading a quote from any of them disparaging those who stood-up to disagree with them on anything. Although not surprised, I am saddened and yes, angry, that our town manager holds such public distain for fellow residents. His demonstration of concern for those on his team (perhaps wielding power is a tough job, but one they willingly accepted) is undermined by his clear animus for those unwilling to be blindly led over a cliff.
Sure, the new North Common is nice, but I’d rather have foreign language instruction in the middle school.
Hear, hear!!!
The Daily Hampshire Gazette began in 1786 as the merchant community’s opposition to Shay’s Rebellon. That popular uprising began with hundreds of people gathering in Northampton to prevent the court from authorizing farm mortgage foreclosures that were forcing Revolutionary War veterans from their homes. The Gazette is a profit-making business that relies on advertising revenue from the business community. Its underpaid overworked news reporting staff depends for material on information provided by public officials. Like Amherst Indy, it has a definite point of view. For a “balanced” understanding of what is happening in Amherst, one should read both and then make up one’s own mind as to (in the words of the folk song) “Which side are you on?”
The Gazette also relies on subscription fees which I just paid for the privilege of reading it. Otherwise you get a few articles and then the paywall.
Re: gazette paywall.
To Arlie and others who may not want to pay to read, you can unlimitedly access the Gazette and other publications who use this type of limited reads/paywall by opening it in a “incognito” mode of your browser. You can thus read 2-3 articles at a go, and then close and reopen the “incognito” browser to reset and read 2-3 more, etc. Hope that is helpful to people wanting access to the local news.
Are Paywalls An Obstacle?”
Here at the Indy we support several other publications with our personal subscriptions and we encourage our readers to do the same as they are able. We understand the need for paywalls in order to keep journalism alive. But sometimes an article that we need to read is hiding behind a paywall, and subscription to the source is just not feasible. For such instances there are workarounds. Find several options at the link below.
https://www.wikihow.com/Access-News-Articles-for-Free