The politics of what we ‘do’

We lost a subscriber with last week’s election, and that is unfortunate.

I hope in time we can get him back.

But I’m not too unnerved for not meeting his wishes that caused him to quit on us.

He posted the following note on our Facebook page in the days before the election:

“Shame on you for endorsing all the Republican clowns!

I buy your paper every day — no more!

How could you do this to all the strong union members in this area who buy your paper?”

I think we’re sleeping fine at night believing we didn’t “do” anything wrong to anyone.

Let’s start with:

We love all of our subscribers.

They are Democrats, Republicans, suburbanites, city dwellers, Pennsylvanians, cat lovers, etc.

The best way to serve the mass of people who rely on The Vindicator is to just be us, and never be always one thing or another. I define “being us” as accessible, flexible, courageous, responsible, reflective, dedicated, patient — among many traits.

Our dedication and courage shine perhaps brightest during elections.

Elections are a perplexing process.

Elected officials and ballot initiatives drive so much of how we live. Yet large percentages of people decline to take part.

Media makes many decisions based on public interest and participation. Given that, a good argument could be made to scale back on elections work in our newsroom and newsrooms elsewhere. That discussion is actually happening.

And sadly, decisions to scale back already have been made with some media — not due to public interest, though.

Reductions have happened due to the obliterated media landscape and the Wild West of the advertising dollar going to many places it did not go to back in the day.

Back in the day, advertising robustly funded your local newspaper coverage.

The Vindicator is on the same troublesome track as all media, and we’ve questioned whether to maintain our current level of political coverage.

But ...

Just as media gets sucked into a resignation of sorts, and of doing less ...

Along comes a disruption.

On Election Day, the disruption was the race for Mahoning County auditor between Mike Sciortino and Ralph Meacham.

On Aug. 1, Meacham was happily bouncing through an average and anonymous Valley life. He picked up The Vindy one day and saw that the Republicans needed a candidate. Within four days or so, he would go from Mr. Unknown to challenger to the Democrats’ embattled incumbent, Sciortino.

And two Tuesdays ago, he became the first Republican nonjudge county boss in 523 years — or something like that.

Sciortino has no business being in public office at this time.

Whatever role his professional skills might merit, he’s awash in a personal challenge that needs to be settled on his dime and time and not the taxpayers’ time.

We saw it; many others did too.

His own party boss, Dave Betras, saw it.

The difference between our institution and Betras as a political party institution:

We had the ability and courage to say what we felt.

Betras’ job description forced him to say, “I Like Mike” — until the community crushed both of them.

Remembering our canceled subscriber — what The Vindicator owes the community is the ability to not blindly follow a prescribed path.

What we owe the Valley is to objectively look at a situation and present the best facts we can. We take that obligation a step further on some occasions, such as elections, and offer an opinion.

We know it’s not always popular to do so.

But it’s hard to ask a community to take various stands and not do so yourself.

With Sciortino, we felt it was time to say “no,” and we’re glad that a majority of the Valley agreed.

Such a role to say what we said is all but nonexistent in broadcast media. Sadly, it’s dwindling in print media as our resources shrink due to the spray of ad dollars.

The Vindy editorial board, which is led by the hometown ownership and is managed by Editorial Page Editor Bertram de Souza, spent more than 200 combined hours in October listening to people who want to make our laws and spend our dollars.

The board’s mission is to do what Valley citizens cannot: look deep into a candidate’s soul and eyes and see what’s there.

It’s an expensive process.

But that process confirmed a struggling and conflicted Sciortino, and it showed a possibility with Meacham.

We went against the norm in many races this fall, and none was more important than the auditor’s race.

It did not go unnoticed. Wrote one reader:

“Please know that had The Vindicator not been thoroughly invested in solid leadership, decency, integrity and ‘new days,’ [Meacham’s win] wouldn’t have happened. Victory was a direct reflection on ‘our’ newspaper.”

That’s what we “do.”

Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes emails about stories and our newspaper. Email him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on vindy.com. Tweet him, too, at @tfranko.