The following letter was published in this week’s issue of the Gazette.
To the editor:
Newspapers are under attack from politicians today in a manner not seen since the days of Thomas Jefferson. The antics of Donald Trump are hard to miss, including his decision to cancel government subscriptions to newspapers based on viewpoint. There has been widespread condemnation of these attacks and his intimidation of the press.
Croton has a long tradition of politicians who seek to squelch free speech and citizen participation. Some of this is subtle, such as the secret proceedings regarding the Katz property. Other actions are more blatant, such as changing “citizen participation” to “citizen comment” and refusing to engage in colloquy with residents at Board of Trustees meetings.
Maria Slippen is not one for subtlety. Now that Croton has taken over the Cortlandt Democratic Town Committee, the effort to silence opposition is moving into a new phase. Hence Ms. Slippen’s warning (The Gazette, week of Nov 28/Dec 4) that my letters “are unworthy of being given additional oxygen in this publication."
“Croton has a long tradition of politicians who seek to squelch free speech and citizen participation. Some of this is subtle, such as the secret proceedings regarding the Katz property. Other actions are more blatant, such as changing “citizen participation” to “citizen comment” and refusing to engage in colloquy with residents at Board of Trustees meetings. Maria Slippen is not one for subtlety. Now that Croton has taken over the Cortlandt Democratic Town Committee, the effort to silence opposition is moving into a new phase.”
Quite apart from the obvious Trumpian aspect of the Cortlandt Democratic Town Committee taking the position that a publisher should stop printing viewpoints the party finds “unworthy”, there is a quid-pro-quo element which should disturb all of us.
In case anyone missed the timing, the position taken by the Democratic Party regarding publication of my letter occurred just a few days before the organizational meeting of the Croton Board of Trustees. Many readers of this newspaper might not have been aware of that, but as a former Croton trustee Ms. Slippen certainly is.
The Village of Croton-on-Hudson and the Town of Cortlandt have “official” newspapers. The municipalities are required by law to place certain specified notices and advertisements in the “official” newspapers. Who decides which newspaper is designated as an “official” newspaper for Croton? The Board of Trustees, and this is done by a vote at the organizational meeting.
The “official newspaper” can be changed at any time by a vote of the Board of Trustees. So when the Chair of the Cortlandt Democratic Town Committee tells a publisher that some views are “unworthy” of publication in the newspaper, it has a subtext which is loud and clear.
In both Croton and Cortlandt, every single member of the Board is a member of the Democratic Party. When the Chair of the Cortlandt Democratic party sends a letter to the publisher of a newspaper saying that a particular point of view is “unworthy” of being selected for publication, this is not something to be taken lightly.
There is a certain irony that the substantive issue which caused the Cortlandt Democratic Town Committee to take a position about what letters should be in The Gazette was their defense of a vile personal smear against someone who dared challenge the candidate selected by the Democratic Party leadership.
This newspaper has always been liberal about publishing letters from community residents. I have never heard of anyone who ever had the publisher refuse publication of their letter in this newspaper. The solution to speech you disagree with is not to seek to squelch that speech—the solution is to speak out yourself.
Political parties should not be taking positions on what is and what is not “worthy” of publication in a newspaper—particularly just a few days before they are to vote on whether to designate that specific newspaper as an official newspaper pursuant to statute.
This is the type of pressure that one might expect from Donald Trump. Now that Croton is running the Cortlandt party apparatus the politicians of Cortlandt might want to consider the wisdom of importing the autocratic governance style used by their colleagues in Croton.
Paul Steinberg