Why the Concord Monitor's Omission Matters or No County Commissioner's Race Here

Recently the Concord Monitor wrote an editorial lamenting the fact that apathy was responsible for the low voter turn out in the primary election. I - like Rick Watrous - believe the Monitor is at least partially responsible. I also believe that by omitting candidate profiles for the Merrimack County Commissioner’s race they are tacitly approving the types of behavior that undermines the publics trust and confidence in their elected officials and governing bodies. They intentionally hid information from you and me.

It is no secret that Tara Reardon, Watrous’ primary opponent, was forced to resign her job as the Commissioner of the Department of Employment Security because of actions she took regarding her daughter’s employment and departure at the agency she led. It is also no secret that Watrous has a long history with CCTV, challenging their willingness to abide by the state’s right to know law and issues relating to conflicts of interest.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am a friend of Rick’s and I supported him in the recent primary. But I am not writing this because of what Reardon or Watrous did or didn’t do. I am writing this because of the Monitor’s refusal to cover a contested election. I am writing this because one of the responsibilities of a community paper is to inform their readers. And I am writing because the Monitor is being hypocritical when they accuse you of being detached from the political process, while they intentionally hide information from you.

The Monitor can’t claim that they forgot. They can’t claim that no one asked them why there was no coverage of the county commissioner’s race. So why didn’t they even mention that this race would be on the ballot? Should we speculate that the Monitor is afraid of repercussions from a politically powerful and well connected family? Should we speculate that had they run a piece on the election that these well connected folks would have limited the papers access to important sources and stories? Should we speculate that they were concerned that there would have been financial consequences?

I don’t know what the Monitor’s motives were for not informing the voters of our community. All I know is they chose not to. This wasn’t something they forgot to do and this wasn’t something that slipped their minds. They consciously chose not to cover the county commissioner’s race.

The only people who know why, are those who work at the Concord Monitor. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have them tell us why they decided to keep the voters of Merrimack County in the dark?