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Tell It Like It Is, Please
By Sergio R. Bichao, Hillside School Board member.
In response to attacks in the Worrall newspapers.
The mistrust that citizens have for their government is at an all time low, no doubt about that. In a time when presidential contenders call the sitting President a liar, when newspapers blithely refer to New Jersey as the most corrupt state in the Union, and when residents spend years battling county and municipal political machines in vain - is it any wonder so many apathetic voters distrust their government?
Fortunately, the checks and balances of government do not end at the legislative, executive, and judicial levels. There is a fourth check and balance on the government: the press. It is important then that while people may not trust politicians they should be able to rely on journalists. In Hillside, however, residents may not be able to trust either.
In the past few weeks, the Board of Education, of which I serve as a member, has been target of artificial attacks by the Gazette-Leader newspaper. This paper has specifically lampooned me for what its editors falsely feel was "inappropriate" behavior in the hiring of attorneys. While the paper's articles contained numerous errors, innuendo, misquotes, and even flat-out lies - it failed to report some important truths.
First of all, the Board of Education interviewed several law firms before making its decision. In New Jersey, governing bodies are not required to hold interviews or request "bids" for professional services such as attorneys. Most governments, including our Township Council and previous school boards, habitually hire their or their Party's favorite attorney without any competitive process. But we at the school board felt that a competitive process was needed to ensure that the district received the best services and that taxpayers benefited from the best deal. Even though law does not mandate this, we followed this hiring method for several of the contracts the board awarded in the last few months.
Not only did this paper fail to report this, but it also fails to inform readers that the school board has reduced the number of attorneys it employs to its proper numbers and functions. Taxpayers in Hillside once had to pocket the expense for half a dozen law firms serving at the pleasure of school board politicians. Not any more. It would have been appropriate to inform residents about this significant improvement, but I guess the newspaper did not care.
The Leader is also upset that Nathalie Yafet and I complained about the paper's coverage of township events. Either the publisher or editor, or both, are afraid of insulting the powers that be - so, to sell papers, they insult me instead. But readers and subscribers should ask the editor why he has not covered the wrongdoings at Town Hall and at the County. To give just one example, newspapers in Philadelphia have been covering Hillside officials' involvement in the Governor's scandals. If these improprieties in Hillside are newsworthy in Philadelphia, shouldn't Hillside's own newspaper be covering them as well? There is much that newspapers can cover without making things up about the new school board and its members.
The sad truth is that residents cannot expect Hillside's newspaper "of record" to reveal what their officials are up to. Its editor has passed up many chances to report improprieties that were very much real and possibly illegal - not just bouts of the reporter's fantasy. And even the newspaper's criticisms of elected officials have always been superficial: ignoring the real corruption and wrongdoing and instead focusing on officials' behavior at meetings. It's a shame really, because the press should talk up to power. This Gazette-Leader and its owners, however, just suck up to it.
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