First lesson, you absolutely can't go wrong with a headline like this:
Report: Chief gave cash for sex
Wow.
Second, when asked why your paper seem to focus on the negative, tell people, "We don't write about the thousands of airplanes that land safely."
That old adage came to mind on Monday when the Daily News reported on a verbal tussle at a Charter Review Commission meeting earlier this month. You can get the details in the article, but the thrust of the dispute centered around a member's concerns that the board won't meet a pending deadline.
I've got no complaints about the article or the publishing of the article. Just seems a shame that this board has been meeting regularly - up to two nights a week, could go to three - and this is what gets the press. But the Review Commission might be the city's equivalent of the high school chess club. Charter reviewing doesn't make for gripping copy or put fannies in the high school stadium seats.
But the committee is moving forward since last November when they were elected.
They added two quality people as replacements for departing members Bruce Vogel and Bruce Brown. I don't know Paul Bevilacqua that well, but he's impressed me at every meeting. I do know Denis Kennedy from our days at the Daily News and I was happy he sought and got a seat on the commission. Denis not only brings a high degree of experience working with municipalities a a reporter, state official and now a consultant. But he also brings a healthy dose of constructive skepticism to the process as his vote against recommending that the mayor serves a four-year term suggests.
Whatever the commission recommends, it will face a great many skeptics - some not so healthy.
If you're interested in what they're up ask them yourself. The commission is holding its next public hearing tomorrow night at 7 pm in Room 118 at Newburyport High School.
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