The mainstream media not only fail to report many legitimate news stories. They often create a story where none exists. News coverage of two recent county commissioner meetings are examples.

At a January 25 meeting, the commissioners were debating a request for funds to buy an option on property adjacent to the site of the historic Fort Dobbs. The request was defeated on a 3/2 vote.

Freshman Commissioner Ken Robertson cited several reasons for purchasing the property. In the course of his remarks, he said that if the land was not preserved, historic artifacts might be unearthed by a Mexican digging a footing for a house.

Robertson’s ethnic reference ignited a firestorm in the mainstream media. The Record & Landmark devoted far more coverage to the remark than to the issue of preserving the Fort Dobbs site. It reprinted an article on the matter in its new Spanish language tabloid, Periodico Hispano.

The story was broadcast by out-of-town newspapers and television stations that seldom cover Iredell County news.

The issue the commissioners were considering had nothing to do with ethnicity, race, or immigration. Taken in context, it is apparent that Robertson’s remark was not intended to be derogatory, unless it is derogatory to point out that a person digging a footing for a house is not likely to be a trained archaeologist.

The question of whether to spend county tax money to purchase additional land at Fort Dobbs was a legitimate news story. Robertson’s remark was not.

At almost every meeting, the commissioners make important decisions that the mainstream press does not report. But when a public official makes a slip of the tongue that deviates from the “politically correct” speech code, the same mainstream press fabricates a major news event.

The County Commissioners frequently hear from citizens who wish to address the board. At the January 18 meeting Robert Stidd lambasted various policies of the Bush administration and called the commissioners “unpatriotic” for having adopted a resolution in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which defines marriage as being only between one man and one woman.

The Record & Landmark devoted a two-column, page-two story to Stidd’s diatribe. Over the years hundreds of citizens have addressed the commissioners. In most cases their remarks were better reasoned and more relevant to county business than were Mr. Stidd’s. The Record & Landmark reported few of these presentations. Even fewer were the subject of an entire article.