By Adam Pagnucco.
Here’s a pet peeve of mine. A reporter in the official media puts out an opinion piece while claiming to be a reporter. Most of the time, the piece is in the gray area – maybe it’s opinion, maybe it’s not. But last week, a particular piece was clearly opinion and it came from a person whose title was reporter.
Let’s make a rule. You can be a reporter or an opinion columnist. Not both.
The piece in question is titled “Politics briefing: Gaithersburg officials’ cut-and-run.” It was an email written by Bethesda Today reporter Ceoli Jacoby on December 19. After noting that Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman and Gaithersburg City Council Member Jim McNulty were just reelected to city office and are now running for county council, Jacoby wrote this:
*****
The situation in Gaithersburg raises questions about what, if anything, public officials owe to the voters who elect them.
On the one hand, there is nothing in local, county or state law that prevents sitting elected officials from running for another office, even if winning the race would require them to step down from their current role.
And, as Ashman has rightly pointed out to Bethesda Today, “there would be no way to run for any higher office without losing part of your term that you’re elected for” as a sitting Gaithersburg official because of the staggered timing of municipal and gubernatorial elections.
Despite this, it’s easy to imagine how launching a campaign for higher office a few weeks or months after winning re-election to your current post could be seen as a bait-and-switch.
Unless an elected official dies, becomes gravely ill or is the subject of a scandal while in office, voters generally assume that the people they elect will continue to represent them for the entirety of their term.
If a candidate thinks there is a possibility that they will step down midway through, it might behoove them to be transparent about it and allow voters to decide whether electing them is worth the risk. Or, they could opt not to seek re-election and instead focus on their campaign for higher office.
Ashman and McNulty both insisted during their recent re-election campaigns and for a few weeks thereafter that they hadn’t made any decisions about seeking higher office. But those statements seem somewhat far-fetched now that both of their campaigns are in full swing.
If you’re a voter in Gaithersburg, I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Does the prospect of more Gaithersburg representation in county and state government excite you? Do you feel betrayed by those candidates who won re-election to city government, only to now seek higher office? Please reply to this newsletter or send me an email at ceoli.jacoby@bethesdamagazine.com if you’re willing to share.
*****
I think this is a good opinion piece. Voters should absolutely ask Ashman and McNulty why they are running for council after getting reelected to city office. But this is clearly an opinion piece written by a person claiming to be a reporter. Here’s her byline.
Other than being an opinion piece, why is the above problematic for a reporter? Consider these elected officials: Congressman David Trone, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, Council Members Will Jawando and Laurie-Anne Sayles and Delegates Lesley Lopez and Joe Vogel. All of them were elected in 2022. Months later, all of them were running for higher offices: U.S. Senate (Trone, Alsobrooks and Jawando) and Congress District 6 (Lopez, Sayles and Vogel). Why did they run? Because those offices were open seats, so why not? Ashman and McNulty are in the same position. By singling out Ashman and McNulty without mentioning all of these other office holders, Jacoby has opened herself to accusations of bias. Columnists are expected to have a point of view but this is kryptonite for a reporter.
The roles of reporter and columnist have different powers and obligations. The reporter objectively reports facts. That conveys prestige to the reporter but requires that they exclude opinion from their writing. The columnist has no obligation to be objective, but the reader knows that and can accordingly consider their opinions with a grain (or more) of salt. That was the way it worked when I was a paid columnist at Bethesda Beat, which is now known as Bethesda Today (Jacoby’s employer), in 2018-19.
When reporters express sentiments like “cut and run,” “far-fetched,” “bait-and-switch” and “betrayed,” as Jacoby did, they are attempting to wield the prestige of objectivity contained in their role in the service of their opinion. And when reporters act like columnists, that gives folks good reason to distrust the media. What exactly is news when the reporters are mixing their opinions into their coverage? Doesn’t everything then become opinion? And what can be regarded as pure facts when those who are expected to objectively report them have agendas?
So let’s keep it clean. Reporters should stick to reporting. Opinions should come from opinion writers. And in the end, the only opinion that counts is yours.