White Plains CitizeNetReporter - A Journalist's Reply: Fois First Letter

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. November 4, 2003: WPCNR presents the text of Robert Fois original first letter, he charges was shared with Assemblyperson Paulin and County Legislator by Publisher Howard Sturman. Mr. Fois said that a paragraph was objected to by one or both of the legislators and that Sturman agreed to remove that paragraph.

Mr. Fois has given WPCNR the copies of both letters. Here is the text of Mr. Fois' first Letter to the Editor, with the offending paragraph blacked out. Mr. Fois, explains the content of the actual paragraph in the news article about the letters published this morning. WPCNR has seen the actual paragraph, and verifies that Mr. Fois' description of the "officially legislator-censored" paragraph is accurate.

Here is the text of Mr. Fois' Letter to the Editor published for the first time:

A Journalist’s Reply

On the rumours of my demise, we are reminded that a man named John Peter Zenger once walked this land and faced a far worse fate. Our town stretched all the way down to Eastchester Creek in the Pelhams in those colonial days and Zenger was tried in 1735 for his coverage of a corrupt colonial election near St. Paul’s Church, in what is now Mount Vernon. The powers in Albany wanted Zenger tried for sedition, punishable by death, but Andrew Hamilton’s able legal defense saved this lyrical journalist. Our Bill of Rights was born out of that struggle and helped forged the freedom of the press.

It is blood sport in politics to kill the message by killing the messenger. Writing about my town was a labor of love and I went to great lengths to maintain balanced coverage. I don’t particularly understand why Amy Paulin is going to such great lengths to discredit me, especially since she went to such great lengths to praise me during the interviews in question.

I had my tape reviewed by other journalists and legal counsel to identify several portions of two interviews where Amy Paulin not only spoke “on the record” but also blatantly violated the grounds of any reasonable confidentiality agreement. A confidentiality agreement is there to protect a source, not to abuse a journalist or a political opponent. A confidentiality agreement is also not built upon allowing someone to make a derogatory remark about someone else.

Amy Paulin attempted to go “off the record” to discredit Tony Sayegh, his family, friends and supporters.

Amy Paulin knew she was being taped. The comments that have been shared with the working press were on the record and I never withheld this information from editors. The decision initially not to pursue this story was an ethical one, as much as the decision to finally share the tape was a matter of conscience.

It is not my place as a journalist to judge a Member of the State Assembly on her comments but I felt she was manipulating me. There was a fear that Amy Paulin’s comments were her attempt to inject race/religion into her campaign. My editors supported me when I balked at covering this story. Frankly, it was chilling to consider the damage she could have inflicted on interfaith relations by openly attacking her opponent, a Lebanese Catholic.

Censored Paragraph appeared here in this position in the letter

I not only demand an apology from these two elected officials but I call upon the leaders of their own respective parties to demand their resignation.

Finally, I would like these two officials to apologize to Tony Sayegh and the entire staff of Hometown Media. I resigned from Hometown Media in August over what I felt had been interference by Jim Maisano and Amy Paulin in the newsroom, with both often complaining about stories before they were on the newsstand.

The real story here is one of an “unreported story” and the critical value of local media. When we sacrifice a news organization’s autonomy to pacify an elected official’s whim or protest, we risk a lot more than a journalist’s job.

Bob Fois


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