Recently, my favorite Big Island newspaper has reached a notable peak of excellence while simultaneously sinking to a nasty low.
I congratulate Max Dible on his top-notch reporting of the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply’s refusal to purchase the clean electric power generated by the Lalamilo Wind Co. to run eight deep wells in South Kohala.
DWS says it’s not contractually obligated to buy the power, a very dubious assertion. But it’s clearly morally obligated to buy it. Perhaps DWS thinks that if it drives Lalamilo into bankruptcy, the problem will, um, dry up. Shame.
Meanwhile this same newspaper is exacting an egregious “pay to play” requirement on candidates for the upcoming primary election. Candidates were invited to respond to questions on issues that are included in Sunday’s “Election 2018” special section — but only if they purchased a quarter-page display ad ($687.50) in the paper.
And candidates got more space by buying bigger ads.
Thanks to Honolulu Civil Beat for blowing the whistle on this pilau practice.
“Exposure – and getting your message across to voters – is key to challengers campaigning against incumbents,” Sherry Alu Campagna, told Civil Beat.
Campagna is running for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District seat against incumbent Tulsi Gabbard.
Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute, a national journalism think tank, told Civil Beat that he’s “dubious that charging for election guide coverage is a standard or ethical practice.”
Your Sunday editorial (“WHT editorial coverage is simply not for sale”) sought to defend this practice by blaming the advertising department. It’s “just that: A special section produced by the advertising team. It is not a product of the newspaper’s editorial department.”
At least now you have informed your readers, for the first time, of the “pay to play” nature of your special section.
But where do you get the idea that ad departments are somehow free of the ethical requirements that apply to editorial content? I know from experience that the ad and editorial departments of a newspaper sometimes feel like different worlds. But it’s the same ink, the same newsprint, the same readers.
David Polhemus is a Waimea resident.
