[Previous entry: "Your Tax Dollars at Work: $15,000 for the Senior Center"] [Next entry: "Councilwoman Maria Slowik Announces Resignation"]

11/17/2003: "The Easy Story"

"The Easy Story," or, "Why You Aren't Getting a Balanced, Objective Report of What Happens in Perkasie Borough Council."

The photo at the right shows a typical scene immediately after nearly every Perkasie Borough Council meeting. Seated at bottom left are councilpersons Bill Hettel and Eadie Burke, surrounded by newspaper reporters for their semi-monthly hand-feeding of the world as Bill and Eadie see it. Standing, from left to right, are Ryan Phillips of the News-Herald, Pervaiz Shallwani of the Morning Call, and Patrick Lester of The Intelligencer.

It's hard to blame the reporters; covering borough council meetings isn't exactly a plum assignment. It's a job typically given to young, new and inexperienced reporters. They don't have the context to put things in perspective, nor do they have the time to do so. They just want to get an entertaining and readable story to their editors as quickly and easily as possible. Council meetings often go late, to the detriment of interviewing and getting all the facts and viewpoints on an issue. Hettel and Burke know better than any how to play to them, and they do it expertly and consistently, to the point the reporters have been "trained" on just where to go immediately after the meeting. They've already been baited by remarks made publicly during the meeting by Hettel (Burke almost never speaks out at meetings, except to vote "no" anytime Hettel does so on an issue). Hettel and Burke are typically the two "no" votes on any given issue -- they rarely have any alternatives to propose; they just oppose whatever the rest of Council wishes to do. It's so predictable it's sad. But it's an easy story, and it's the one you'll read about in tomorrow's papers.

Replies: 1 comment

Well, I certainly had that call right, as you saw if you read any of the local papers! Hettel's and Burke's story about their view of a recent executive session made the papers, but no other council members' views were included! Too bad, because the articles are extremely misleading and incorrect. What's especially bothersome is that the News-Herald story essentially copied the Intelligencer story published the day before, including the lawyer quoted, and the same incorrect budget figures (the budet figures were only off by a million dollars, but what's a few dollars between friends).