Dear Roundup: Be fair and objective or butt out

EDITORIAL

It’s hard to even know where to begin, so let’s get right to the point: Pete Aleshire’s front page story in the Friday, Aug. 26 edition of the Payson Roundup about a complaint filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) by Mesa del Caballo resident Steve Gehring reaches a new journalistic low.

The Thursday night meeting between Mesa del residents, Salt River Project and Brooke Utilities/Payson Water Company is the story that the Roundup should have had on its front page Friday, not the rantings of an individual who is well known for filing legal actions and complaints, and who once even blockaded Houston Mesa Road.

The Roundup has, of late, been scolding Mesa del residents for not buying into the Blue Ridge/CC Cragin reservoir option and for complaining about hauling charges and water company service issues. Now, in a complete about face, Aleshire and Editor Tom Brossart give the top spot on the front page to a complaint that is likely to go nowhere. In the process they have overshadowed the positive Thursday meeting at which the overwhelming majority of Mesa del residents were clearly in favor of the Blue Ridge/Cragin alternative.

The actions of Aleshire and Brossart have muddied the water for Mesa del residents and perhaps scuttled the alternative they themselves have been prodding the community to accept. If that turns out to be the case, Payson residents will also be impacted by having to pay more for Blue Ridge/Cragin water. With the Rim Country on the verge of resolving its water woes, that’s a very sad outcome.

Back when the Rim Country Gazette provided local residents with an alternative news source, the Roundup covered meetings that took place on Thursday evening in its Friday edition. Now that there is no competition, Reporter Alexis Bechman is allowed to take four days to write her story about the Mesa del water meeting. (That's right: Aleshire didn't even attend the meeting.)  Don’t readers deserve more responsive coverage?

And don’t they deserve balanced, objective coverage? Even Aleshire admitted that Gehring’s complaint is “sometimes confusing.” Still he allowed Gehring to ramble unchallenged. Neither Brooke President Robert Hardcastle nor the ACC had seen or had time to respond to the complaint. Given Gehring’s history, would it not have made journalistic sense to run Bechman’s story first and hold Gehring’s until the accused had the opportunity to respond?

At least one longtime Roundup subscriber in Mesa del is cancelling her subscription over Aleshire’s story, and hopefully others will follow suit. For the vast majority of us who long ago quit reading that paper, we have just one thing to say to Aleshire, Brossart and Publisher John Naughton: If you can’t be fair and objective in your coverage of our affairs, just butt out.

We really don’t need your inflammatory interference in a process so important to our future. 

(Disclaimer: Blog Editor Jim Keyworth is also President of the Mesa del Caballo Community Center/El Caballo Club, the organization that sponsors the Mesa del Caballo Water Committee.)