Amherst Times

When Thomas Carlyle, historian of the early 19^th century, used the term 4ht Estate, he attributed it to English politician Edmund Burke who said “in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate.”  Democracy has flourished when there is an independent, skeptical, and scrutinizing media, bur suffered when there is not. 

In our little section of the world, one would hope that our only newspaper,  The Buffalo New,  would exemplify the 4^th Estate, seeking the truth and fighting for the people’s right to know the unvarnished true facts, but, alas, it does not.

Gutsy reporters have stood up to maniacal dictators, as many did against the rise of Hitler in Germany.  Former President Nixon resigned from office because the 4^th Estate uncovered the unvarnished facts about White House corruption.  More recently, unfortunately, the print and television media failed to be skeptical and scrutinizing when President George Bush used false WMD claims to justify his pre-emptive war against Iraq and America has suffered.

In our Town of Amherst, where our local Buffalo News reporter Sandra Tan, and her predecessor, Thomas Dolan, seem enamored with Supervisor Satish Mohan as a local celebrity rather than as a government leader for whom investigation and scrutiny are needed, we suffer from the lack of real reporting.   The Buffalo News paints a rosy picture of our Town and the competency of its Supervisor. That portrait seems born of an aversion to the pursuit of truth which may be unpopular and of an institutional bias toward the Republican establishment in the Town of Amherst. 

For instance, on Monday the News ran the results of its survey of Supervisor Mohan’s Performance after tow years in office.  The article appears to be an excessive effort to write for “balance,” lacking critical inquiry, and often acceding to the Supervisor’s view that his failure to reform is due entirely to others, the other Board Member, the Department Heard, the Unions etc. rather that his personal leadership incompetence, his proclivity to denigrate others, his failure to be truthful in dealings with others, and his inability to build consensus.

The News article cited Mohan’s trumpeting that the Town “payroll boasts fewer employees than it did when he entered office.”  While that statement may be true, Mohan did not get himself elected on an honest advocacy of workforce reductions to cut government costs.  Rather, Supervisor Mohan promised that he would lower taxes by 15% and that “All services will be preserved. . . . “ and “No town employees will loose their jobs.”  The largest component of the government costs is the salary, wages and benefits of the people to provide public services.  What was the Supervisor’s lie to get elected – “No town employees will loose their jobs” – is now ignored by the News which, had it been doing investigative reporting, would have exposed the Supervisor Mohan’s real goal – elimination of Town employees.

Sandra Tan displayed her bias for Republicans in her January 8 article lauding the 24-year-politician-developer, new council member Barry Weinstein, while simultaneously labeling council member Daniel J. Ward derisively as “historically the least polite of all the board members.’  While one can pint to come strong language in some of his proposed resolution no impartial observer can fairly describe Mr. Ward’s conduct as the ‘least polite.” 

The News’ failure to pursue the 4^th Estate’s noble goal to expose government incompetence will lead the public to rely more and more on other sources for their news.  Stay tuned for more unvarnished facts about your Amherst Town Government.