June 7, 2013
Indiana, Letters

Bias in news coverage

The Star Press | June 7, 2013 | www.thestarpress.com

The “Our View: County planners take safe track with wind farm” editorial of June 6 represents journalistic hypocrisy at its worst.

While The Star Press labels residents of eastern Delaware County “NIMBY’s” (not-in-my-backyard) for being worried about their quality of life and the value of their property, they cite as heroes the residents of northwest Muncie who so aggressively fought Indiana Michigan Power’s plan to upgrade and enlarge an electrical substation at Tillotson and University avenues. Only now, the residents of eastern Delaware County aren’t heroes, but rather are obstructionist, anti-development, ignorant, and are destroying the county’s reputation for being business-friendly.

The Star Press gave considerable coverage to the substation story. However, it completely ignored the wind turbine issue for weeks, only reporting on the opposition nearly a week after a standing-room-only public meeting demonstrated the community’s concerns. Its coverage of the substation opponents was positive; however, its coverage of the people just wanting questions answered about the wind turbine development is overwhelmingly negative. Could it be that The Star Press has a geographic bias where eastern Delaware County isn’t as important or deserving as northwest Muncie?

The public has a right to be concerned about the wind turbine project and its impact on the area. After all, with debacles like Omnicity, Cedarbridge, and Monogram Foods, Muncie and Delaware County don’t exactly have the best track record of supporting successful business ventures. Taking the “safe track” is appropriate, and it’s the right thing to do.

BRAD PEDIGO

Muncie


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/06/07/bias-in-news-coverage/