After his surprising victory over three-term incumbent Jerry Schweighart on April 3, Champaign mayor-elect Don Gerard hasn’t gone out of his way to accommodate the News-Gazette‘s requests for a one-hour videotaped interview.
According to a piece that appeared in Sunday’s paper entitled “Incoming mayor yet to grant interview with N-G,” by Patrick Wade, “[Campaign manager Angela] Patton later informed the newspaper that Gerard would be available to respond to questions via email, but The News-Gazette declined. The newspaper considers email interviews to be a last resort, for sources who are traveling or in distant locations, making face-to-face or phone interviews impractical.”
Gerard says he’s not altogether opposed to speaking with the paper, however. “It is not that I am not communicating with the paper by any means,” Gerard said by email. “However, I did not feel it was worth my time to submit to a one-hour videotaped interview session. I am at every council meeting and post the community events at which I appear and I am happy to answer questions. The reporters for the News-Gazette seem less inclined to ‘report’ and more keen on coming up with a story idea and then cherry-picking comments.“
Wade wrote another piece, also in Sunday’s paper, “Pair bound by ethics laws to keep work, council separate,” detailing the additional restrictions on Gerard and incoming councilman Paul Faraci in their roles as state employees. N-G Managing Editor Dan Corkery said, “By not being able to talk with him and interview him, it was kind of like, one of our questions was: how is he managing to hold a state job at the same time as being mayor?”.
So, in lieu of asking a direct question of Gerard, they chose to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the U of I in order to obtain Gerard’s timesheets. When asked whether that wasn’t a bit aggressive, Corkery replied, “What’s the harm in filing a FOIA? […] We filed a FOIA, and we found out what we found out and we reported it.”
The newspaper ran several news and opinion pieces during the campaign that were critical of Gerard and those close to his campaign, mostly centering around campaign contributor Doug Larson and Craig Wilson Walker; several of those articles appeared only in the print edition of the paper. Corkery explained, “I think this all stems from the way we are approaching the web, which our own internal data show that people turn to websites for breaking news primarily, so that’s the way we’re approaching our website. And then the longer pieces, whether they’re news or opinion or whatever, those appear in print.”
When asked about the N-G’s coverage of the campaign, Gerard said, “I honestly did not pay much attention as no reporter at the News-Gazette ever asked to properly interview me during the campaign. I met with Professor Jeff Brown (UIUC School of Business Economist) who said he felt ‘duped’ into writing the article Gordy Hulten and others lauded decrying refinancing the Pension Debt. Prof. Brown was very clear with me he felt the only time this type of accounting should be considered was if services to taxpayers are being cut as that is, in his words, ‘simply bad policy.'”
Gerard said that the inquiries he’d received since the election were, “Tom Kacich sent me a Facebook message asking about in-kind campaign contributions and Patrick Wade requested the video interview. That is about the extent of it.”
Neither side is expressing much concern about their need for the other. Gerard stated, “Seeing as how virtually every other media outlet is delighted to speak with me I suspect we will not have a difficult time communicating with the community. I suspect it will positively affect my Mother’s mood as she is pretty upset.”
As for the N-G? “We’ll continue to report news,” Corkery countered. “What I think is disappointing is that the News-Gazette has the largest news audience in east central Illinois, period. And by not talking to us, he is not talking to our audience. So this isn’t, I’m not feeling personally hurt by anything. But I just think it’s foolish of him to not talk to our audience. And I don’t think he does himself any favors by doing that. But anyway, we’ll continue to do our job, and whatever he decides to do is whatever he decides to do, and we’ll go forward.”
As far as what it’ll take for Gerard to speak to the newspaper? “John Foreman can feel free to send a note of apology and a nice bouquet of flowers to my Mom,” he joked. “Seriously, I am happy to talk to anyone who actually wants to discuss real issues which affect the city.”
UPDATE (8 p.m., 5/3/11): Gerard offers this: “In relating a comment from Prof. Jeffery Brown I misspoke in regards to a conversation I had with him about the article the News-Gazette printed. Brown had only meant to say he was not aware the article was allegedly used as a political statement. Unfortunately, I made and error in judgement with the irony being I spoke (or, rather misspoke) on his behalf and ironically brought him into a political statement. I regret the error as I have great respect for Prof. Brown and hope to utilize his knowledge and expertise in the future as it pertains to the economics of municipal government.”