Don't blame Lakeville for the ugly behavior of a few
by Larry Werner
Thisweek Newspapers
A woman named Anita called on Monday morning to say she is ashamed to be a resident of Lakeville after seeing news reports of the John McCain rally Friday at South High School.
She had read in our newspaper and seen TV reports about a woman who said she didn’t trust Barack Obama because he’s “an Arab.”
Anita also was angered and embarrassed by other incidents the media reported from the town meeting McCain held with about 2,000 folks who got tickets in return for promises to do volunteer work for the Republican presidential candidate. Among the other incidents that angered her were reports that McCain’s comments concerning his respect for Obama were greeted with boos.
Similar comments criticizing Lakeville people were appended to the story of the event written by our Lakeville editor, Derrick Williams.
“Remind me to roll up my windows and lock the doors when I drive through Lakeville, lest I be mistaken for an Arab terrorist,” wrote someone named David.
Other comments on our Web site suggested the Lakeville bashing is a result of the media reporting selectively on the bad behavior and ignoring the questions and comments that reflected support for McCain’s positions rather than negative feelings about his opponent.
I didn’t attend the event at South Friday night, but I have watched the video of the event taken by Jeff Achen, our online editor and videographer. That video, like Derrick’s story on ThisweekLive.com, contains the full spectrum of behavior on display at Friday’s event. Both the video and the story have elements of the good, the bad and the ugly of this presidential-election campaign.
The good: As Derrick reported, McCain said several times during the event that he has differences with the senator from Illinois, but that he respects him and encourages his supporters to be respectful.
The bad: Some of McCain’s comments about being respectful were greeted with disrespectful boos from many in attendance.
The ugly: A woman from Shakopee did, as our story says, make a statement about her distrust of Obama because, she said, he’s an Arab.
Good, by the way, followed that ugly statement when McCain took the microphone from the woman and said that his opponent is a good family man with whom McCain happens to have fundamental disagreements.
Some of our critics say we should have ignored the woman’s comments. John Gessner, our assistant managing editor, said when a presidential candidate takes a microphone from one of his supporters at a public event, “That’s news.”
John is right. It’s our job to tell you what we believe you should know, not just what you want to know. We should tell you balanced stories that summarize events with the written word in our newspaper and on our Web site. And, thanks to the technology that is now available to newspapers, we can let you see entire events on our Web site so you can make your own judgments about what happened.
I invite you to watch the video on ThisweekLive.com.
I believe we provided a fair representation of the event at Lakeville South last week, and I am not embarrassed for Lakeville. For one thing, it’s likely most of those who got tickets to the event were not from the community but had driven from all over the state to support their candidate. For another, we can point out that it was in Lakeville that McCain said it’s time the candidates stop the mudslinging and start discussing issues respectfully. Let’s hope the Lakeville event is remembered as a turning point in what has been a terribly negative campaign.
In addition to saying Barack Obama is not an Arab and that he is a good family man, I wish McCain had said something else, like:
While Sen. Obama is not an Arab, there’s nothing wrong with people of Arab descent. We have built a country of people from all over the world who believe, as Sen. Obama and I do, that the United States of America is such a wonderful and welcoming place that a former fighter pilot and a former law professor can aspire to be president.
May the final three weeks of this campaign focus on the good you see in each of these men rather than the bad they see in each other.
Larry Werner is editor and general manager of Thisweek Newspapers. He is at larry.werner@ecm-inc.com.
