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Brookline Newcomer

Opinions and disclosures

Published in the Brookline TAB

May 25, 2000






 

Two weeks ago Stanley Spiegel's biweekly TAB column dissected and dismissed State Rep. Ronny Sydney's claims of legislative effectiveness. In a Guest Commentary last week Nancy Heller and Evelyn Roll strongly criticized Spiegel's column. I don't normally respond in print to critical letters or columns, since I think readers should be able to write to the newspaper without fear of being trashed in response. In this case, however, I'm making an exception, for two reasons.

First, Heller and Roll demonstrate a common misunderstanding of the role of an opinion columnist. Second, accompanied by similar behind-the-scenes contacts with the TAB by others, their column has led to the end of Stan Spiegel's work for this newspaper. As I understand it, unless the TAB editor-in-chief changes her mind, Spiegel will no longer ruffle the town's feathers on this page.

I'm not going to address the substance of Ronny Sydney's record--the subject of Spiegel's and Heller and Roll's commentaries. I'm still too new here to have much sense of Sydney's history or of the history of her Democratic primary opponent, Frank Smizik. I tend not to focus on specific candidates anyway, since I have more of a blast-the-whole-system frame of mind than does Spiegel.

But isolated from the substantive debate is the core of Heller and Roll's misconception. They begin by charging that "Stanley Spiegel is not an independent commentator when he reviews State Representative Ronny Sydney's performance." Apparently, they claim, Spiegel was a "core member" of Sydney's opponent's campaign two years ago, and this time around "this so-called 'independent' columnist" has donated money to Smizik. They insist that Spiegel "should be honest with the TAB's readers and acknowledge his extreme bias against Rep. Sydney, so that his readers will be forewarned to read his diatribes in that light." And they claim he "should follow a policy of full disclosure and inform The TAB of his intention to use that newspaper in any way that he can against Rep. Sydney."

Heller and Roll make a good case here for the fact that Stanley Spiegel supports Frank Smizik and opposes Ronny Sydney. But why bother? Spiegel makes the same case himself. He doesn't need their help.

Despite Heller and Roll's claims, opinion columnists are not, and are not supposed to be, and don't pretend to be, "independent commentators," if by "independent" they mean lacking opinions and allegiances. We're not reporters ethically obligated to present equally all sides of controversial issues. Instead, we're paid to be opinionated, forceful, and articulate advocates for positions we care about. That we have strong opinions does not need to be "disclosed" absent some illegitimate financial or other considerations that might affect our views.

It's always legitimate to criticize us when we're blatantly unfair or for making errors. Unfairness and errors don't help us persuade our readers anyway. And it's legitimate to disagree with us, for any reason. But it's nonsensical to demand that we disclose the obvious fact that we're pushing a point of view. Look at the top of this page. It says "Commentary," not "Objectivity." That sounds to me like a pretty good hint.

To satisfy Heller and Roll's call for full disclosure, though, I'll admit to certain biases and experiences of my own. I've never met Heller or Roll. I've seen Spiegel in person at two or three public meetings; once we met for coffee at Zaftig's; and we've spoken on the phone several times. I like him, and I trust his political judgment and detailed knowledge of Brookline, even though I don't always agree with him about specific issues. I've seen School Committee member Frank Smizik a few times at MCAS-related meetings and have publicly criticized his stance on MCAS. I've never met Ronny Sydney, but she did serve me pancakes at last month's townwide breakfast. Decent pancakes, but a little dry, and the syrup wasn't real maple.

This all seems as silly to me as it no doubt does to you.

Just one more disclosure: I think that the loss of Spiegel's column is a loss for Brookline. We need more columnists willing to take strong stands on local issues, not fewer. The TAB should reinstate him.

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