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Editorial
The Season of Thanks
So many Roosevelt Islanders put volunteer time into making The Main
Street WIRE happen that it’s never possible to give proper
acknowledgment to each one.
At The WIRE, we’re thankful for their efforts, and we hope you are, too,
as you read these pages. They do it because they see the value of
independent reportage on Island affairs. We hope you read it for the
same reason.
Happy Holidays to you – and to every one of them.
RIOC News
It’s not in the League of the Bush crowd paying conservative
commentators to spread Administration propaganda via right-wing radio.
Nor does it measure up to the Bushies planting rah-rah stories in the
Iraqi press.
But RIOC’s new RIOC News does fall into the category occupied by
all those publications put out by government agencies that think they
can’t get their messages into the media. We know – because it’s repeated
to us – that the current RIOC administration feels that way about The
WIRE, perhaps forgetting that this publication’s purpose is to serve
its readers, not government.
But RIOC had a public-relations guy on the staff for years. He generated
a grand total of one press release that made it from 591 Main Street to
531, where The WIRE is cobbled together. So it’s hardly a matter
of RIOC’s message being ignored in these pages. It’s more like there was
no message, or perhaps no effort to create coherent policies that
could be embodied in a corporate message.
So now, your ground-rent money will be spent to "ensure that residents
receive timely and accurate information on RIOC activities." We notice,
though, that the phrase "big-box retailer" never made it into RIOC
News’ "accurate" report on its consultant’s efforts to market Island
properties.
State revenue will also be spent giving away free advertising, and it is
about time RIOC did something, however insignificant, for beleaguered
Island merchants. The fact that such a giveaway at State expense
competes with and undermines a community publication that attempts to
sell advertising in this micromarket seems not to trouble RIOC or
the free enterprisers in the State Administration. Does it trouble
you?
DL |
