Opinion: A journalist’s letter to Mayor Mitchell

Dear Mayor Mitchell, 

It’s been brought to my attention that you are having a problem with newsfolk these days. Because I know a little about them, my civic duty compels me to give you some advice. 

First of all, news people come in infinite varieties, with various styles, capacities, backgrounds and talent levels. Very few are cynical.

Believe it or not, most are idealistic. Why else would they seek a job in a low-paying industry with long hours and few perks and little security? 

Their idealism is manifest in the often quixotic and elusive pursuit of truth. The deeper the truth is buried, the greater the joy of discovery when it is found.

Politicians attract their attention, especially ones a mite frayed around the moral or intellectual edges. Notably, your edges are clean. Even your enemies cite your uprightness and intelligence. Yet you seem to feel besieged and have drawn up the drawbridge over the moat. You seem to resist inquiry. I find that odd.

Aren’t you the same man who told a New York Times reporter you welcomed The New Bedford Light into town because it would make your administration more accountable?

Now, no reporter expects an administration to open the kimono to all its hopes, plans and dreams, let alone its hits, runs and errors. But you went full autocrat on information after a few inevitable early bumps from a news startup. As the months and years have gone by, you haven’t relented.

It is so self-defeating to keep reporters, especially young, bright and ambitious ones, at arm’s length.  

They want a story, yes, they do. But they also want and need to learn, especially about the city they are covering and its challenges and your plans to meet them. Who better to explain them than our long-term mayor?

Once, after I asked you about the city metrics and why they weren’t being shared with reporters, you called them “your” metrics, as if you owned them. I found that stunning. Metrics are the statistical data that reflects to a great degree how the city is faring. Imagine if your doctor said your test results were his alone and none of your business. 

If you make City Hall a closed citadel to any news outlet that displeases you, you are treading on dangerous ground. Any reporter worth their salt is going to go after the information with all the tools at their disposal, especially those available under Freedom of Information laws. 

With unnecessary bother and expense, reporters can finally get documents you are withholding. But there’s the rub. The documents alone cannot tell the story, because documents by themselves lack context and nuance, which only you and your aides can provide. 

By themselves, documents trigger distortion, especially if people within the City Hall citadel feel gagged in dealing with the press. No one, least of all the reporter, wants a distorted story. Corrections don’t undo the damage. Cooperation would have avoided distortion altogether. 

The really savvy politician deals with the press by drowning the invariably sleep-deprived reporter with documents and data, and  making time to talk and impart knowledge that only you have. New Bedford is a deeply complicated place. Addressing its problems in a comprehensive way, sensitive to its history and complexity, is a challenge for any mayor, especially in these turbulent times. The whys and wherefore of your plans and policies in meeting the city’s needs are vital information to convey publicly.  

With all due respect, you seem to declare more often than you try to persuade and teach. Maybe that’s the prosecutor in you. 

Your City Council is a case in point. Collectively, it’s no picnic. But collectively it reflects the people of this city as they are. It’s certainly an imperfect reflection and no doubt at times dysfunctional. No mayor has escaped the council’s jealousy of the mayor’s clout. But a little more deference on your part might soothe and undercut that ill feeling.

You have a great and sweeping vision for a city in transition; you can best implement your ideas with leadership that teaches through  gentle persuasion, changing minds by sharing concrete realities. 

You may well be the smartest man in the room. The smart way to act is to share your knowledge in every way you can, publicly and persistently.

Respectfully yours,

Ken Hartnett

Ken Hartnett is founder emeritus of The New Bedford Light and lives in the city. He is a retired executive editor of the Standard-Times and has worked as a national investigative reporter, community reporter, police reporter, City Hall reporter, national sportswriter, columnist, editorial writer and managing editor at news organizations such as the Boston Globe, the Associated Press, Boston magazine, Boston television and the Middlesex News. 

Editor’s note: The New Bedford Light’s newsroom is scrupulously independent. Only the editors decide what to cover and what to publish. Founders, funders and board members have no influence over editorial content.