OPINION
Transparency isn't an empty word.
On Monday, an anonymous hit piece by the Dallas Express claimed that the Post-Signal is a Pilot Point establishment attempting to stymie transparency and accountability.
Our body of work shows that we believe in transparency and accountability.
In fact, that's why we wrote the March 21 piece about the issues that had already been identified by other communities about the Texas Government Accountability Association so our readers could be informed about an issue before the Pilot Point City Council.
We did have a factual error in the April 4 article about the council's decision (see the correction in this issue); Tatiana Ambrosio is a freelancer who works with us; and we are owned by Daniel and Rosemary Thatcher.
Those are about the only facts that piece got right.
Don't get me started on the laughable journalistic integrity of citing 'sources said' without identifying who they are, as well as 'critics said' without identifying them, either, not to mention failing to put your name behind your words.
Not to mention the fact that the piece includes libelous accusations about the reporting and intentions of the Post-Signal.
To be clear, the only thing the Thatchers are guilty of as far as Pilot Point institutions are concerned is investing in this newspaper, keeping it alive when so many other community newspapers are closing.
The only influence they exert on our coverage is to encourage us to find the 5WH's—who, what, when, where, why and how—, to tell the truth and to follow the money.
As far as Ambrosio being a freelancer for us, she does not dictate our coverage.
If she did, would we have reported on her husband being arrested on Dec. 30 in our Jan. 5, 2024, issue? Wouldn't we have proclaimed that his case was no billed by a grand jury for all to see if she told us what to publish?
She does help us in our business endeavors.
We have never shied away from that fact.
What we have shied away from, which we regret now, is not publishing more of the facts regarding Mayor Elisa Beasley's nontransparent behavior.
Making Facebook videos that disappear in 30 days isn't being transparent.
It's being a public relations minded person who may not want to be accountable for your comments more than a month later.
Being transparent means keeping a record of all you say and do that you willingly produce when asked.
Deleting your records—videos, emails or any other means of communication— regularly does not meet any sniff test of government accountability.
And that is precisely what Beasley has told me she does.
She informed me in late August that she has her private email which she then used and continues to use to conduct city business, has been set to automatically delete after 30 days.
That flies in the face of record retention laws for public officials.
Especially when the city has provided both email addresses and cell phones for the elected officials to use that taxpayers fund.
Want to test that for yourself?
Request any email correspondence between Beasley and Kelley Burgess regarding the recall petition last year, as I did.
Or of any email or messaging correspondence between Beasley and Amy McEvoy regarding the charter election, as I did. We can compare notes about what we received. She also told me in that conversation that during the charter election, when people contacted her about how to vote on the 27 propositions on the ballot, she encouraged them to vote no if they didn't understand an item.
She claimed that was because she 'would never vote to give the government more power.'
A responsible recommendation would be, 'If you don't understand what you're reading, leave that proposition blank. You have no obligation to fill in everything.'
On Britannica.com, the entry regarding transparency says, 'Where civil society is weak or where citizens and the press are intimidated, opportunities to obtain information will go unused and may be risky. Information on technical issues may be difficult to understand. Officials may release disinformation, create expensive and complex transparency procedures, or disseminate material in obfuscatory forms.'
Misinformation has been the name of the game in Pilot Point for a while.
A couple of issues where that comes to mind—the creation of the governance subcommittee and the plans for downtown Pilot Point—to me illustrate that the facts were neglected for the sake of emotional arguments.
With the recent look into the TGAA, we found that the two cities that agreed to the contract had varying levels of buyers' remorse, and that a third city had residents who were heavily opposed to the concept.
We, the paper, didn't take a stand about the TGAA in the March 21 or April 4 issues.
We reported the facts that were published in other newspapers and accessible on government websites.
If the facts make you look questionable, that's on you, not the reporting.
And reporting on them doesn't make our staff biased.
It means we're paying attention.
Abigail Allen is the Editor & Publisher of the Post-Signal. She can be reached at [email protected].
