by Steve Reinbrecht
Why did the Reading
Eagle publish an interview with the new Berks County Republican Party chairman –
but didn’t publish his comments on Donald Trump?
Donald Trump is the
leader of the national Republican Party.
Media of all sorts
have been writing about Trump.
You might think
readers want to know: Does the new Berks GOP chairman, Joseph E.
Rudderow III, support Trump?
Not all Republicans do. Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry
Hogan said Wednesday that he will not vote for Trump.
Lancaster Online asked Dave Dumeyer about Trump after
Dumeyer was elected chairman of that county’s GOP on June 3.
“This year, he [Dave
Dumeyer] will lead the committee’s efforts to gather support for candidates in
the heated November elections — including the controversial GOP presidential
nominee Donald Trump and, in the highest-profile local race, state Sen. Lloyd
Smucker in his bid for the county’s congressional seat.
“About a month after
Trump’s last two GOP competitors dropped out, Dumeyer said he thinks local
Republicans are warming to the idea of Trump’s candidacy and will see him as a
better alternative to likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
““People are coming
around, people who were supporting another candidate are saying, ‘Well, OK, he
wasn't my preference but I can vote for him,'” Dumeyer said.”
So why did a string
of Reading Eagle editors accept a story about the Berks GOP with no mention of
the most recognizable man in the world?
The newspaper is
fascinated with politics, right? It devotes a page every Monday to “The Briefing,” a “weekly report on government & politics.”
It routinely sends
reporters to follow the herd in Harrisburg to cover state issues, like research for childhood cancer and time limits on prosecuting child-sex crimes.
On local politics, the
reporter elicits this from Rudderow:
"Yes, it's exciting there's a national election going
on, and sure, Berks County's going to be a part of it.”
Do the Reading Eagle
newsroom leaders believe local politics doesn’t matter? That county parties are
irrelevant? That no one cares how candidates for local positions are chosen and supported?
Maybe Rudderow didn’t
want to comment about Trump. Who could blame him? But the Eagle should explain
that it at least asked.
Is the media leadership
trying to avoid embarrassing links between Trump and Berks County?
Is it because the
Reading Eagle is scared or has no ability to cover sensitive, divisive and powerful events?
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