I was privileged to have had the opportunity to serve as a “community” member of the Courier Times Editorial Board during the several months running up to the recent November elections. With that perspective as background, it was interesting, and sometimes amusing to read several of the published Letters to the Editor which accused the paper of being little more than a liberal, left-wing rag.
During that tenure, the Editorial Board met with a number of special interest groups (i.e., proponents of the Growing Greener program) as well as most of the candidates for State Representative, the House of Representatives and the Senate within the paper’s Lower Bucks readership area. The Board also reviewed the credentials and positions on key issues of the candidates for president (both of whom failed to respond to the Courier’s open invitation) and for State Treasurer, Attorney General and Auditor General; offices potentially affecting the lives of all Pennsylvania residents.
It would be disingenuous to suggest some of the Board members didn’t occasionally hold certain biases prior to such interviews. However, the tone and content of the questions asked of the candidates was always professional while still probing for answers and information that very few ordinary voters ever get to ask. These free-wheeling sessions were a far cry from the carefully controlled and choreographed campaign stops which are the preferred forums for most of the campaigns.
I found the members of the Editorial Board extraordinarily bright and exceptionally well-informed on a wide variety of issues which concern Pennsylvanians in general and residents of Lower Bucks County in particular. While they may disagree on the details of certain issues, to a person, they share a passionate concern for freedoms of speech and the press and trying to provide their readers with a balanced overview of the news. The variety of opinion reflected in the Courier Times News, Editorial, OpEd and Letters to the Editor pages is reflective of this commitment.
When the time for the Board to vote in the paper’s editorial endorsements, the discussions were open and civil, significantly different from the tone of the campaigns whose candidates we were evaluating. Curiously, several members’ ultimate votes were differed from the persons they thought they would support at the outset of the process.
As for the allegations that the paper is a local version of the New York Times, nothing could be further from the truth. A review of the Courier’s endorsements will reflect both Republican and Democratic candidates were supported. Further, in almost all instances, the endorsements included positive statements on the candidates not being endorsed as well as frequent challenges to those being supported. In the case of its endorsement of Senator Kerry, it was not a rubber stamp, as there were articulate advocates in support of the President and his policies … as well as one person who remained undecided until he was actually in the voting booth.
Although having been employed as a regular OpEd columnist for many years prior to moving to Pennsylvania, the opportunity to participate on the Editorial Board was a unique and rewarding experience. It also reinforced my belief that the residents of Bucks County are fortunate to have the Courier Times as a fair and balanced alternative other electronic and print media.
