Short Shrift to Public Service

Kevin Richert wondered on his blog about the lack of interest in the upcoming city council election:

It’s election season in the Treasure Valley. Wake me when it starts.

I don’t think I’ve seen less voter interest in a local election in my 6 1/2 years in Boise — or in my 22 years in Idaho communities.

Of course, a daring commenter pointed out the obvious to the Statesman Editorial page editor:

Methinks you’d have a bit more credibility when criticizing voter interest in local races if your very own paper didn’t bury the “profile” piece on Tibbs & Bieter 15 days before the election on page two underneath a pic of on “picking the perfect pumpkin”–nice alliteration, btw. Also, your failure to report on campaign finance reports (except Eagle, where those losers can’t even raise more than a couple of thousand each). Maybe you should be looking at the “why” in the 5 Ws instead of the “what”. Tibbs initially seemed like a formidable opponent, but once his candidadcy didn’t materialize, you wrote the race off as boring.

Bingo. The Statesman’s political coverage is notoriously awful thin, and unfitting for a city of our size.  I lived in Kalispell, Montana (population less than 20,000) for years and they showed more respect and were more capable in covering elections.  We had a better idea of who was running. Today’s endorsement editorial for the City Council was no exception. Other than naming the other candidates in the sidebar, there’s little discussion of their candidacies. Now to be fair, Richert hints that some of the council candidates may not have been cooperative (to put it mildly.) But he won’t say which didn’t show up or why the editorial didn’t clearly distinguish that voters had choice or what the issues are.

The Modus Operandi of the Idaho Statesman is not to  give us serious, informed election coverage throughout the process, but intermittent puff pieces that don’t provide necessary information, and don’t do justice to the process. Then, the day after the election an editorial will appear excoriating the citizens of Boise because only 12 or 15% showed up to vote in a vital election. And they do this with no sense of irony or any clue that THEY might have a share of the blame.