Lewiston Sun Journal Defends Casino Coverage
Know when to fold ‘em: I heard from a couple of angry people at the Lewiston Sun Journal about my recent postings on that paper’s coverage of Question 3 on the Nov. 8 ballot that would have allowed a casino in downtown Lewiston. Neither person who contacted me by email would allow their names to be used or their comments posted. But their version of events is slightly different from that presented by others, so I think it’s worth relating.
Both of my correspondents confirmed that more than a week before the election, the Sun Journal received documents from Dennis Bailey of the anti-gambling group CasinosNo! indicating the developers of the casino project had made a deal to sell much of their interest to an out-of-state company. According to these staffers, the paper made an effort to verify that information, but was unable to do so, in part because the casino backers denied they had agreed to a sale and refused to say whether signatures on the what looked like sale documents were genuine.
Given that situation, the Sun Journal decided, according to one of the emails, that it would be “irresponsible for us to report or even suggest otherwise.”
On the Thursday before the election, Maine Public Radio did its story based on the same documents, which it apparently found credible. When I asked one of the emailers why the Lewiston paper didn’t then do an article citing its problems verifying the information, the reply dismissed such a scenario. “Is it our role to go around correcting erroneous reports?” the response read.
Well … yeah, I always thought so.
In any case, that raises another question: Why did the Sun Journal finally go public on election morning with a weak story citing mostly the pro-casino side?
Both emailers said the paper was merely reacting to a CasinosNo! public event demanding the developers explain the sale documents. “[I]t wasn't a story until Dennis [Bailey] issued his ‘public’ letter,” said one. “He wasn't challenging the principals, he was behaving as the masterful operative that he is and grandstanding for the voters at the 11th hour. That's not really news either, but it couldn't be ignored.”
Uh … OK, I guess. Although, it’s difficult to understand how the Sun Journal could conclude that a story from a respected news organization raising major questions about a development in the newspaper’s hometown didn’t merit some follow up, while accusations by a public relations guy with past credibility issues called for a last minute, front-page story.
If there was no pro-casino bias in the Sun Journal’s editorial decisions regarding this issue, it would appear there was a severe shortage of common-sense news judgment.
The vultures circle: Several news outlets reported last week that HM Capital of Dallas, Texas, a major financier of Richard Connor’s 2009 purchase of what is now MaineToday Media, will no longer invest in newspapers because of poor returns. HM Capital also put up much of the $65 million Connor used in 2006 to buy the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. An HM official refused to comment when asked by a reporter at the Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre what that decision meant for the future of the newspapers.
The Voice article cited an industry expert’s assessment that the loans for both media companies are “probably underwater.”
Given the state of the industry, it doesn’t seem unlikely that Connor’s Pennsylvania papers are worth less than he owes on them. But his Maine publications – the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel – were purchased at bargain-basement prices, with published estimates ranging from $28 million to as little as $10 million. Given that Connor, before his abrupt ouster in October, had slashed staffing and other expenses, and sold off real estate to pay down debt, it’s likely there’s some equity left in the Maine company.
And if the rumor mill is to be believed, some interest in purchasing the papers. Among the unverified reports:
Richard Warren, owner of the Bangor Daily News, has made an inquiry about buying his rivals. If true, such a move would give Warren a near monopoly in the state’s print media.
Unless another bit of gossip has some validity. The Costello family, which owns the Lewiston Sun Journal, came close to entering the Portland market in 2009, when it looked as if the Press Herald, then owned by the Blethen family of Seattle, might go bankrupt. That plan called for the Costellos to upgrade their weekly Forecaster newspapers to daily status. To stave off being surrounded by competitors owned by the Bangor Daily, that idea is said to have been revived and in the process of being updated.
Gasp! On Nov. 16, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services sent out an email to the media with the subject line “Carbon Monoxide release.”
Before you reach for the gas masks, it turns out the department meant news release.
Of course, those can still be plenty gassy.
Al Diamon can be emailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
The views expressed on this Web site are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of Down East Enterprise or its employees.
I'm confused
So the Sun-Journal's position is that it couldn't publish a story because the casino developers refused to comment on the validity of their signatures on sale documents. Neither the newspaper's claim nor the developers' refusal passes the straight-face test.
That they refused to comment is the story. Period. It doesn't matter what the source of the story is. If the developers were the victims of fraud -- a laughable theory -- then they should be outraged and talking.
Whoever made the decision should admit to ineptitude and move on. As for who called who when and who said what in regard to Al Diamon's caller, I gotta tell ya, this reader could not care less. All I know is that the newspaper failed to do its job.
From my e-mail exchange
DIAMON: I'd be happy to post your email on the site if that's acceptable to you.
ME: Don't bother. I have no interest in getting into a public bout with you. That I -- and other members of our staff -- know the truth is good enough for me.
Also, Mr. Diamon did not contact anyone for the Nov. 8 piece setting his little fantasy, and "says" he contacted someone in our newsroom for the Nov. 14 piece. However, since he got so many facts wrong on so many levels, I find it unbelievable that he actually did so. Had he, he would have had better and more accurate information.
Two corrections
Contrary to Judy Meyer's claim, I did contact someone at the Sun Journal. That person did not wish to be named in my posting, but provided information that confirmed what I was told by my other source outside the paper.
Also, I was never asked by Meyer to keep her emailed comments off the record and never agreed to do so. I omitted her name from the above posting as a courtesy.
Al Diamon
Dealing in fact, not fiction
Any reference to the above “facts” as presented by Mr. Diamon regarding the SJ is nothing more than his own highly-developed fantasy.
I was one of the angry people at the SJ who contacted Al “Make It Up As You Go Along” Diamon, because, as I told him, he didn’t have the basic decency or integrity to even call to talk to anyone in our newsroom before spouting falsehoods.
During our exchange yesterday, it was my understanding (since I told him I had no interest in taking my criticisms of him public), that our little e-chat was private. But, apparently he can’t honor that simple request because he shared some of my thoughts in public anyway.
So, since Mr. Diamon is so keen on the SJ correcting erroneous reports, I’m happy to oblige.
This is what I actually said to him in writing:
A little more than a week before Election Day (well before the MPBN story), a tipster forwarded what he called exclusive “insider” documents that he alleged demonstrated the pending sale of Bates Mill No. 5 by the Lewiston casino partners. We read through the documents and, despite the fact that the tip came from a dubious source, began work to source the documentation.
The documentation carried unverified signatures from a portion of the principals – only some of the Lewiston side of the alleged deal – with no signatures from the alleged buyer. We contacted the “alleged” sellers, who would not confirm any pending sale.
The documents, which carried odd page numbers and appeared incomplete, were also alleged to prove a connection between the Lewiston developers and Ryan Hill or Scott Nash, but we were not able to confirm any link at all after checking GT Source company ownership and other corporate records.
After several staffers spent hours working to source the paperwork over a period of days, what we had left was an unverifiable document delivered to us by a tipster who we recognized was motivated to kill the Lewiston project.
What Mr. Diamon has so grossly suggested – now three times -- is that the Sun Journal should have taken the tipster’s accusations and published them as fact. That we should have blindly rolled to print with charges raised by someone with a clear agenda one week before Election Day without checking for accuracy.
Taking baseless allegations and presenting them as truth is his trademark. Nor ours.
As I told Mr. Diamon, we have an obligation to report facts, not innuendo. And, as I also told him, it’s an obligation and a code of ethics he does not seem encumbered by out there on Hernia Hill.
The tipster who provided us with questionable documents succeeded, from my point of view, in exhaling a political smokescreen that was designed to cloud the issue for voters, and Mr. Diamon fell for it. We did not, because we bothered to sort through the haze.
And, frankly, for Mr. Diamon to accuse of us laziness because we did the work he did not is laughable. And, sort of sad. And, more than just a wee bit hypocritical.