White Plains CitizeNetReporter - A Journalist's Reply: Fois Second Letter "Legal" Did Not Have Time to Look At

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. By Reporter Robert Fois. November 4, 2002: WPCNR publishes with permission, the second letter Robert Fois submitted to Howard Sturman Wednesday, October 30, which Howard Sturman informed Fois could not appear in last week's edition of Eastchester Town Report because, according to Fois, "he didn't have time to run it through legal."

Mr. Fois wrote this letter after being told by Mr. Sturman that Assemblyperson Amy Paulin and County Legislator James Maisano objected to the paragraph Fois describes in this morning's lead WPCNR story on the "letter review". Here is the text of Mr. Fois Second Letter, published with permission. The boldface type indicates the new text in Mr. Fois' second letter.

Here is the text of that letter:

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 forge 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. It was chilling to consider the damage she could have inflicted upon interfaith relations by openly attacking her opponent, a Lebanese Catholic.

I resigned from political coverage in August over what I felt had been outside interference with the editorial process. My news copy would be shared with Westchester County Legislator Jim Maisano and/or Assemblywoman Amy Paulin during fact checking. This resulted in a weekly ritual of demanded revisions by my editors before the paper hit the newsstand – always referenced back to complaints by Paulin or Maisano.

Even this letter to the editor was read to both Paulin and Maisano before publication. I experienced tangible pressure to change my words, which I have, and I am feeling political pressure to withdraw this letter – under the threat of a lawsuit by Mr. Maisano.

I don’t know what’s worse; politicians or lawyers in our newsroom. What I do believe is that 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

Eastchester, New York


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