Johnson Newspaper Corporation Coverage of Potsdam Health Care Zone Suppresses Truth and Betrays Mission of American Journalism


How is it that the biggest regional newspaper in Potsdam NY has made every effort to suppress one of the biggest news stories in Potsdam NY in years - namely the fiasco of a 15-acre, multimillion dollar, healthcare rezoning-and-construction project all but approved in the early months of 2009 until a lone voice, that of an amateur environmentalist, was able to show that no legally-required environmental reviews had been performed?

And how is it the local version of the same chain has also joined the deception - even to one-up its sister-paper in wholesale distortion of the truth for the effective benefit of a local business and major advertiser - which just happens to also be the finest healthcare institution we have EVER dealt with (please see Personal Note (below) for an Important Personal Statement from Organizer Richard Brummel, 6/1/09.)

The answer is that the Johnson Newspaper Corporation, a monopolistic print company based in Watertown that dominates the Northern Tier of New York State, has deliberately and recklessly destroyed the journalistic integrity of its inexperienced young local reporter, has deliberately buried and ignored information in the possession of its reporters and senior editors, and has by commission or omission conspired with a large healthcare advertiser to achieve the advertiser's business aims.

(Please note we use the term monopoly in a layman's sense -- they own all the daily newpapers around, via various vehicles!)

While a dismal chain of poor journalism preceded a set of climactic events at the village board meeting of May 18th, it was the paper's "explanation" of what happened there that settled any question of journalistic integrity and decency at The Watertown (NY) Daily Times
in a negative sense.

That "big story" appeared in a mere nine paragraphs, four days after the fact, buried in the bottom of an inside page, B5 on May 22, 2009. Written by local correspondent Alex Jacobs the article was a model of error, omission, and misunderstanding.

(A search on The Watertown Daily Times website on 5/31/09 at 1:18 PM for all articles containing the term "Potsdam" published between 5/22/09 and 5/31/09, contained 67 items (articles) but only the one article of May 22, 2009 on the Zone. It thus appears there have been no additions, corrections or other modifications have apparently been added to the information readers were given in that piece.)

For the The Daily Courier-Observer, the distortion reached a new level when the first paragragh of a trivializing article on "one neighbor's struggle" over the Zone called the 15-acre multi-million dollar rezoning-and-construction plan "plans to re-zone a block of homes from residential to that of an official health-care zone." (The Daily Courier-Observer, 5/29/09, p. 1)


The Watertown Daily Times article stands as a model of pure propaganda, that treats public discourse and policy making -- and especially citizen action -- as private asset of the editors, to be managed and molded at their preference apart from the actions that occur at public meetings and otherwise.

This is a common attitude at a couple of Johnson Newspaper Corporation monopolistic print properties with which we are familiar, including The Watertown Daily Times and The Daily Courier-Observer (Massena-Potsdam, NY).

The deficiencies in the article were deliberate and/or reckless; because the paper had voluminous documentation and verbal information provided to its editors and the writer by Potsdam Smart Growth organizer Richard Brummel, whose five months of analysis, testimony and website documentation forced the village to announce on May 18th it had suspended consideration of the law pending completely re-done environmental reviews.

In fact we had in telephone conversations beseeched reporter Alex Jacobs, Managing Editor Bob Gorman, and Regional Editor Jeff Savitskie to give full and fair coverage to the hospital Zone but received no useful assistance.

The paper also had access to stories carried on NorthCountryNow.com and GoverneurTimes.com which reported verbatim and in one case with editorial introduction a full analysis and reporting of the events that had occurred in Potsdam to date.

(Staff of The Watertown Daily Times were aware Potsdam Smart Growth organizer was an experienced reporter who in fact worked as The Watertown Daily Times Massena correspondent from June 1982 to approximately March 1983 and was given voluminous daily space for many investigative and enterprise pieces of journalism during that time, until he put in two weeks' notice to pursue a career change in New York City.)

In addition to distorting and confusing facts surrounding the actions and errors by the village and the hospital, the article managed to omit any mention of Potsdam Smart Growth, its organizer Richard Brummel, its website and its relentless (and solitary) five-month campaign to push the village of Potsdam to comply with NY state environmental review laws.

The consequence of omitting any mention of the voluminous public record of blistering criticism of the village - which included a demand at the village's May 18th meeting that an attorney audit the entire set of irregularities around the Zone process - meant that the public was given no basis to demand accountability from its officials, because it appeared they were resolving their own problems spontaneously.

That kind of journalism is mouthpiece-journalism not worthy of American democracy. But obviously it is good enough for the print-monopoly Johnson Newspaper Corporation.

Almost every element of the May 22 article made a statement that was false or misleading:

(1) Paragraph 1 - "The Canton-Potsdam Hospital has hired a consultant to help with… the village's proposed health care zone."

The truth: According to Planning Director Fred Hanss, the applicant is no longer the village but the hospital - that is why the hospital is doing the required Environmental Assessment Form. The village had been the applicant, but for an unknown reason withdrew itself, through an unknown, unreported process without any formal; announcement to the public yet, to our knowledge.

(2) Paragraph 2 "The village is the lead agency for the unlisted action under SEQR."

The Truth: The definition of an action as "Unlisted" as opposed to "Type 1" is an important policy decision that must be taken deliberately by a local government. (State Environmental Quality Review ("SEQR") rules Department of Environmental Conservation rules Chapter 6, Section 617.6(a)(1)(iv)). Many consequences result.

The newspaper and its editors and reports had ample written and verbal information that the issue was central to legal and policy analysis of the Health Care Zone proposal. But The Watertown Daily Times story of May 22 merely dropped the bombshell information in as unattributed detail, through incompetence or reckless disregard.

(3) Paragraph 3 "The municipality originally completed a short-form environmental assessment as part of the process for a Type II action….That kind of assessment is meant for an action that will not have significant environmental impact"

Truth: The village's Short Form, filed March 19, 2009, was titled "Short Form Environmental Assessment Form for Unlisted Actions Only". The story was factually incorrect - the village chose the form for unlisted not a Type II action. Again there is no attribution for the statement so no one knows why the reporter reported erroneous information.

But as multiple documents provided by Potsdam Smart Growth to The Watertown Daily Times stated, even as a "Short Form" the Potsdam form was legally severely flawed because in defiance of state law it contained NO environmental review information whatsoever.

(4) Paragraph 4 "As the project developed, it became clear the Short Form wouldn't be enough," village Administrator Michael D. Weil said.

Truth: That statement is blatantly false. Both the Potsdam Village Planning Board
and the St. Lawrence County Planning Board were satisfied with the empty and invalid Short Form and had recommended approval of Local Law 4.

Village trustees were fully prepared as of the end of the village board's May 4th meeting to approve the plan two weeks later after a legally-mandated hearing. As Potsdam Smart Growth has repeatedly reported, and the principals have never denied, Potsdam Mayor Ron Tischler and prominent Trustee Steve Yugartis both confirmed to organizer Richard Brummel that a vote was entirely possible after the hearing.

It was likely only the five-page pre-delivered written testimony we provided on May 13th for the May 18th hearing, and/or our strong admonition to Steve Yugartis at a chance meeting in Ives Park about the impropriety of voting on the deficient process, that changed the village's opinion.

But any competent reporter who wanted to know sand report the truth - and their editors above them - would have asked the village official what specifically changed and who made the determination. Of coursed, since the Johnson Newspaper Corporation has less than no interest in reporting the truth of the village fiasco they were not going to make any such attempt at legitimate journalism.

(In fact, we must ask if there is an unedited form of the article that the reporter turned in and was destroyed over her byline by her editors. It is up to Alex Jacobs to inform us about this and perhaps restore some measure of her credibility - though if that were the case, for her to have remained silent and complicit for so long is an answer in itself. )

(5) Paragraph 7 "Hospital spokeswoman …said Canton-Potsdam retained a SEQR consultant to make sure the process is in full compliance with state environmental law."

Truth: The hospital has no role in assuring compliance with state environmental review law that is wholly the responsibility of the village. For the hospital to assert it has any influence over compliance with SEQR is a deception that deliberately confuses the public and suggests "compliance" is merely a formal matter of hiring a consultant.

In fact the blatant, extensive, farcical, and inexcusable violations of State Environmental Quality Review ("SEQR") rules to date have been all the work of the Village of Potsdam and nothing the new applicant for the zone could do would have changed them - from failures to initiate environmental review "as early as possible" in the formulation of the Zone concept in 2006 (DEC regulations 617.6(a)(1)) to failure to determine formally what type of action the Zone represented (DEC regulations 617.6(a)(1)(iv) to failure to determine the significance of the Zone's environmental impacts "as early as possible" (DEC regulations 617.6 (b)(i)), and on and on.

(Many of the obvious failures are listed in our Legal Analysis at PotsdamSmartGrowth.org.

(6) Paragraph 7 "Mr. Weil said he does not anticipate that the hospital will need to prepare an environmental impact statement…."

Truth: To be a bit facetious, one might forgive the reporter for being unprepared to absorb such a statement if she actually knew anything about State Environmental Quality Review ("SEQR") rules, because the administrator's statement is one of the most outrageous ethical lapses one could possibly commit under SEQR and is therefore so outlandish as to be astounding.

For a village official to make such a prejudicial statement on a matter of delicate and intricate policy determination is equivalent to a judge announcing to the jury at the start of a trial, "I don't think the fellow is innocent but let's see what happens." Such a judge would be censured and removed quickly.

It is also not besides the point, that despite the bland reporting of this statement as uncontroversial wisdom by the Johnson Newspaper Corporation, it will be virtually impossible to actually bypass the Environmental Impact Statement process.

But the determination of environmental "significance" of an action based on its impacts to the environment is a legal, policy decision that must be taken by the village board in a judicious and fact-based manner based on the expert factual record presented to it in the Environmental Assessment Form - which had not yet been completed, according to the villager clerk as of the date the administrator's comments were reported.

The editors and reporter had voluminous written and verbal assertions regarding the position of Potsdam ?Smart Growth that opposed such a reading b the village administrator-but chose not to share it with their readers and instead leave them with a shocking yet blatantly self-serving and inevitably erroneous impression.

Again, the article served to deceive, not inform.

We call on the Johnson Newspaper Corporation to hire an independent ombudsman to investigate its journalistic failures, to retract and correct its erroneous articles, to hold accountable all the editors and writers responsible for the failings in its coverage of this and any other land-use issues, among other topics, and to issue a full apology to the public until such time as it puts together a team of integrity and competence to cover news in the North Country.

Personal Note -- On a personal note I, Richard Brummel, want to reiterate my 1000% support for CPH. I have never encountered a better - or equal - health care institution anywhere, including the German bone marrow center that saved my life - twice so far. CPH is far and away the best healthcare institution I have ever used. And this past week I was three times a patient in the ER for problems (fortunately determined to be not serious) after I received a special follow-up bone marrow transplant procedure recently. In its core mission of healthcare, CPH is incredibly good - friendly, competent, immaculately clean, smooth-running, humane, modern, easy-going - everything that most healthcare institutions - and most large bureaucracies - find impossible to maintain simultaneously. One must say that the senior administrative team at CPH is a model of competence, because these things don't happen accidentally. And to be frank, they did not happen a few years ago during at least the initial era of management by benchmark; they needed a fresh push to make them happen. Still, this does not diminish the need to look beyond the core mission of the hospital - because the health of a community is measured and sustained also in its environment and culture, and the Health Car Zone will impair both - and create ultimately more sick people in body and spirit. So persevere we must!


PotsdamSmartGrowth.org.

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Originally prepared 6/1/09
by Richard Brummel, Organizer
Potsdam Smart Growth
(315) 265-2615
rb.1006@yahoo.com
PotsdamSmartGrowth.org