By Karen McCowan
The Register-Guard
Published: 10/18/2006
Excerpt:
Alarm bells clanged for Brownsville newcomer Ian Tomlinson when the
editor/publisher of the local weekly newspaper announced plans to run
for mayor.
"My background in political science led me to feel that him
being both the mayor and the editor of the paper was a little bit of a
conflict of interest," the 24-year-old Vassar College graduate said.
"One thing this town does not need is a lack of ethics in its
highest elected office," Tomlinson wrote in a letter to The Times owner
Don Ware, alluding to the 2004 arrest of Brownsville's then-mayor
Kathleen Swayze in connection with her husband's marijuana-growing
operation. ...
... And when Tomlinson announced his own
candidacy after no one else filed against Ware, the editor ran a front
page story.
"Don's paper has covered me very positively," Tomlinson said. "But I
still think it's a problem when government and the government watchdog
are one and the same. ... I do
not want a paper that avoids hard news or a mayor who abstains from
voting because of a conflict of interest."
Tomlinson's point was buttressed by
Kelly McBride, an ethics expert at
the Poynter Institute for journalism education. "It's a dilemma, though
not an impossible one to solve," she said. "Should (Ware) be elected
mayor, he would have to create a system that would isolate him from
decision-making about his newsroom's coverage of City Hall. He would
essentially have to deputize someone else to preserve the newspaper's
independence and ability to be a watchdog."
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