Give the Japanese credit. As part of their culture, their leaders are expected to acknowledge mistakes, apologize, and then go on to do better.
When Knight-Ridder owned the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader and the newspaper lost its way in slanting its coverage to favor plans for an arena as a run up to a referendum, the publisher was replaced and the newspaper published a front page apology along with a couple of pages of highly critical reader comments.
Rather than being behind us, the distorted Lancaster Newspapers coverage of the Convention Center Project will become more and more an issue as taxpayers are required to fund still more money to cover growing convention center losses and possibly have to make good on the City’s guarantee of the Marriott Hotel bonds. Each piece of bad news will expand the ill feelings engendered by the Lancaster Newspapers’ fall from grace.
Perhaps Jack Buckwalter will learn from the leaders of Toyota, acknowledge mistakes, apologize, and then move on. However, this is assuming a lot. Also LNP may be hesitant to admit any fault until the Molly Henderson liable suit against them is resolved.
I think that few are likely to remember specific distortions by the Lancaster Newspapers in a way that brings about a reckoning, unless (hopefully!) NewsLanc is there to wave it in our faces. I hope that NewsLanc won’t lower itself and engage in the same tactics for an opposing point of view. If we’re going to take NewsLanc seriously, NewsLanc needs credibility and independence.
Editor’s note: Please visit “Convention Center Series” at https://newslanc.com/category/convention-center-series/ for copious details.