Taking Exception to Eastwick Editorial
To The Editor:
We were saddened by a recent two week period in which you produced your first editorial focused on our Republican County Executive McLaughlin and then in the succeeding issue amplified it with a lengthy article mainly giving further voice to those who are flouting our governor’s leadership on the COVID-19 issue.
First, in praising McLaughlin’s leadership, you are doing a significant disservice to your readers in the light of our Rensselaer County Executive recently dismissing our governor’s carefully thought out plans for opening up under the COVID-19 disaster. This in itself is the height of folly in that COVID-19 policy can not be set by one county unless that county also has a policy of banning all travel in and out of its borders. Health policy regarding highly contagious disease must by definition be set by the largest entity possible, and in our system of government this means the state level. Any deviation from that endangers all of us and your paper consequently is putting all of us at more risk. And as you well know, McLaughlin has no real power to legally implement opening protocols. His only power, and it is a powerful one, is in his ability to console and cajole his constituents to do the right thing. It is this power that he has so sadly abused.
Secondly, by your subsequent relevant article in as many weeks, this one titled “COVID-19 and Civil Unrest” giving voice to mostly republican objections to the governor’s leadership on this issue, taken as a whole these two articles have severely politicized the paper, favoring one party. Although you did not technically reprise your own opinion on the COVID-19 issue as an editorial would with the second article, you instead extensively used eight paragraphs in quoting other republican officeholders who amplified McLaughlin’s objections with our governor’s leadership while relegating the governor’s position to basically one paragraph which served as a foil for the other eight paragraphs to attack. With these two articles taken together, “fair and balanced” they were not.
I am reminded of a thought given to me by our esteemed (Republican) Petersburgh former supervisor Mason Hubbard, who said that, when it comes to local issues, party affiliation should be kept out of it. And for many years our town has for the most part avoided the politicization of its discourse.
Do you really want the Eastwick Press, which has been such a beacon of responsibility for so many years, to tear itself and the community apart with this new attitude?
Barton & Priscilla McLean
Petersburgh
Editors Note: We welcome the McLeans’ opinion in the spirit of a free and open discussion of the issues. We would like to point out that the editorial in question praised County Executive McLaughlin, not for any political view or his declaration that Rensselaer County was open for business. It simply pointed out, that in our opinion, Mr. McLaughlin had gone above and beyond in keeping his county informed and answering questions directly from county residents, something no other leader, county or state had done on a daily basis.