Yes, it revolts us, that after so long a time, the Intelligencer Journal / New Era is yet not permitted to divorce its news coverage from the financial interests of its publisher. A case in point is today’s front page article “Extension likely for convention center debt.”
The casual reader would infer that Scott Martin’s proposal only dealt with renegotiating Wells Fargo Bank’s interest rates for the Convention Center bonds. In fact, the Martin proposal called for contributions on the part of the City and…guess what?… give backs by the Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. through its 50% interest in the Marriott Hotel of some its one sided and we believe dishonorable financial arrangements with the Convention Center Authority.
In fact, LNP’s conflict of interest is not even acknowledged in the article.
Meanwhile, after several paragraphs ballyhooing the Convention Center, we read about Lancaster City Mayor Rick Gray’s proposal for the county to inflict even more taxes on countywide hotels, the vast majority of which have derived no benefits from the Convention Center business and, in many cases, have lost business to the Center. (The City of Lancaster has guaranteed the financing for the Marriott Hotel.)
Here are excerpts. Judge for yourself.
“With the deadline looming on the refinancing of the Lancaster County Convention Center’s debt, Lancaster County Commissioner Scott Martin said Friday that an extension again is in the works.
“Martin said previously that his goal in the negotiations remains having the bank reduce its financing fee by 60 basis points. That would save the center authority about $380,000 annually.” …Not a word about whether Penn Square Partners (High and LNP) will make concessions and whether the City will contribute its requested $100,000 a year.
“Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray last year proposed increasing the room tax by 1.1 percent. The increase, which would add about $1 to the cost of a hotel room, would provide long-term funding for the center while not being enough to drive travelers away, the mayor maintained.
“Yet, any increase in the tax has been opposed by the Greater Lancaster Hotel and Motel Association, a trade groups of local hoteliers.”
Whenever a ‘hatchet job’ is required, the editors tend to turn to one reporter. Of course the owners and the editors must be held responsible; the reporter is simply doing as instructed and there is no way of telling what important information was edited out of his report. Nevertheless, though other reporters come and go, we suspect this gentleman will be with LNP until retirement.
At the Thursday, May 25, 2013 public meeting of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority, more information was released from the platform than was published in the newspaper. Scott Martin was named as having been actively involved in the negotiations with Wells Fargo, and it was clearly stated that a group of local business people are also involved.
It was clearly stated that a solution may be imminent, but as it was publicly said several times that even if it were agreed on as of that day it would take longer to complete the documentation than remains in the current extension.
The reporter who wrote the article in question knows far more about these situations than what has been published in the newspaper. There can be little doubt that what is actually published has consistently been limited by editorial policy.
I have an idea….LNP wants to focus on ‘local’ stories of ‘local interest’ that will generate ‘local’ dialogue, right?
Well…how about if Gil Smart, Jack Brubaker or Bernard Harris research and FACTUALLY report the income stream/ expense ledger for the PSP’s Marriott Hotel (built with TAXPAYER DOLLARS!!!); in comparison to the income stream/expense ledger incurred by the Convention Center (built by TAXPAYER DOLLARS!!!), before ANY decisons on future financial agreements with Wells Fargo are finalized.
I would think that kind of information would be very helpful and very enlightening for those who are called upon to make the ‘tough’ decions.