[Editor's Note: The following was sent to the Times Herald-Record on Friday, October 13th]

Dear [Times Herald-Record] Editor:

As an avid reader of the Times Herald Record with a particular interest in the manner in which news within the Village of Ellenville is handled, you have put new meaning in the phrase "no news is good news". Throughout the Summer months there have been few articles written in the Record about the many positive events that have occurred in the Ellenville/Wawarsing area including the Arts Initiative, Town Bicentennial events, July 4th Celebration, and the annual Blueberry Festival. When Senator Chuck Schumer visited our Village to congratulate us on the signs of turnaround apparent throughout the Ellenville area, the event was heavily covered by the press throughout the Mid-Hudson area with the exception of the Times Herald Record which chose to ignore this event despite the fact that it was the first time a U.S. Senator had visited the Ellenville area in over forty (40) years.

During a recent unfortunate domestic dispute in Ellenville in which a young man following firing of a gun barricaded himself in an apartment for over five hours, it was interesting to note how the two (2) area newspapers handled the coverage of this event. On page 2 of the paper published in the Kingston area, the headline read "Search for shooting suspect locks down school in Ellenville". This same event was covered on the front page of your paper with the headline "ELLENVILLE UNDER SIEGE" with a photo of a "sniper from the Ulster County Sheriff's Office". This sensationalization of the facts and events that occurred at best is disappointing and at worst is a clear misrepresentation of the circumstances surrounding this event. Sadly, at a joint meeting between the Village and Town Officials that occurred that day, the participants cynically surmised that the Record would find a way to cover this story in a manner that would raise concerns over the safety of our citizens when, in fact, the steps taken by our law enforcement agencies took extreme precautions to insure there would be no physical injuries to anyone as a result of this occurrence.

Sadly, the Times Herald Record has gone from a community newspaper covering events in the Ellenville area, both good and bad, to a publication that rarely covers events unless there is a scandal, weapon or physical injury involved.

While we in the Ellenville/Wawarsing area take great pride in the steps we have taken to revitalize our area, your publication continues to detract from our efforts by sensationalizing unfortunate events making them appear far more dangerous and repetitive in occurrence than they actually are.

I would suggest that if you can not find the time to balance your sensationalist stories, you can do the Ellenville area a favor by ignoring us altogether in your newspaper articles. With few exceptions, when it comes to the Record's coverage of events in the Ellenville area "no news is truly good news"!!

Very truly yours,
JEFFREY KAPLAN
Village Mayor

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