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We have a
few Casino Friend
Bumper
stickers left
Editorial
The media, and The Enterprise in particular with reporters
Alice Elwell and Mike Underwood, are focusing
on negative aspects of the casino coming to Middleboro in their articles.
The Enterprise has made its editorial position clear, but they should not
let an editorial bias leak into their news reporting. As far as we can
tell, while there have been photos of residents holding Casino-Friend
signs, to date there has been no mention that there are two websites
devoted to the casino issue in actual articles.
It isn't just The Enterprise. The Boston Globe has a
correspondent, Christine Wallgren, who is covering the story for the Globe
South edition.
In the two most recent articles about the controversy in Globe South,
correspondent
Christine Wallgren
referenced the opposition website a number of times without ever indicating there was
a website providing a counterpoint. These articles have clickable links
which take the reader to the CasinoFacts website. The Globe South article
today has four such links. These links in a high readership website both
increase the search engine rankings of CasinoFacts and lead readers to a
one-sided website.
In a
May 31st article she wrote and
this is the only reference to our website in it:
Casino supporters Helen Belmont**, Hal Brown, and Joseph
Freitas have set up a pro casino website at
casino-friend.com
to, they say, balance the casino opponents' site at casinofacts.org. "We
think we look at it more objectively," Brown said. "We address the
negatives. We have no affiliation with the tribe or funds from the tribe."
I wrote a story about your group and casinofacts reacted
the same way you are. I guess if both sides say, I'm biased, then I'm not.
This sounds reasonable at first blush, but ask
yourself just how logical a statement it is. If both your children come in
after a tussle with each other and one has black and blues all over
themselves and the other is unruffled, and they each complain that the
other started the fight, do you simply accept that both are in the wrong?
Casino-Friend has had enough of biased reporting and since
there's nobody to do it for us, we are defending ourselves.
And as far as separating personal opinion from their
reporting, I have to wonder if these reporters ever took even one undergraduate
journalism course?
The local media could learn a lesson
from one of the top public television stations in the country, Boston's WGBH (channels 2 and 44). They are planning to have representatives from
both CasinoFacts and Casino-Friend on their popular local news show,
Greater Boston, Monday night.
*All but one story about the casino.
This site and its steering committee has no affiliation with the
Mashpee Wampanoag or their representatives. |
