Above are two examples of Vero Beach 32963 “news” stories in which opinions are not differentiated from facts.

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

Reputable news organizations have traditionally distinguished between unbiased reporting and news analysis and commentary, such as opinion columns and editorials.  Not so with the barrier island weekly.

In stories unsuspecting readers might assume are fair and balanced, the newspaper’s editors seem to be sanctioning the lacing together of opinion and fact.

For example, in a July 4 story, which was heavy-laden with reporter Lisa Zahner’s opinions, the island weekly reported, “Forced by the impending Vero electric sale to Florida Power and Light to finally impose realistic staffing levels citywide, Vero Beach managers appear to be making a vote for those cuts at next week’s budget workshops as politically painful as possible for the City Council.”

I use the word “reported” loosely in this instance, because much of what is being “reported” is simply the writer’s opinion.  Zahner, and presumably her editors, seem to believe the City of Vero Beach has “unrealistic staffing levels.”  What the reader does not learn from Zahner’s reporting is that between fiscal years 08/09 and 12/13 the city’s general fund employee count was cut from 259 to 202.5, a reduction of 21.8 percent.  The city is cutting its general fund staff another 7.9 percent in the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1 – a fact worth noting by any newspaper that seeks to be fair and balanced.

The assertion that the city’s staffing levels are “unrealistic,” is strictly an opinion, not a matter of fact.  It is one thing to present the views, beliefs and judgments of sources, and to clearly label them as such.  Passing opinion off as fact, as is the practice of Vero Beach 32963, is simply irresponsible journalism.  Readers have a right to know if what Zaner is weaving into her stories are facts, her own opinions, or the views of Councilwoman Pilar Turner, or Taxpayers’ Association president, Glenn Heran, or one of a handful of other outspoken critics of city staff.

In the same July 4 story, headlined “Vero’s idea of cutting budget: “Slashing Christmas tree lighting,” Zahner wrote, “The subsidy provided by high electric rates, over the past three decades, enabled Vero Beach to fund a ratio of roughly one city worker for ever 35 residents – an unparalleled situation which has seen Vero shell out $15 million each year in salaries for the city’s 430 workers.”

Based on the numbers Zahner presented, the average compensation for city workers, including pension costs, health insurance and other benefits, would be just $35,000.  Her numbers are off because she is repeating Turner’s make, which is to include enterprise fund workers in the city’s employee head count, without also taking into consideration the revenue from those enterprises.

It is hard to believe that Zahner and her editors are doing anything more than forwarding as fact the views of Turner, Heran and the anti-government crowd.  As Turner always does in citing benchmarking statistics, Zahner and her editors consistently fail to distinguish between the city’s general fund employees and those working in the city’s enterprise funds:  the electric system, the water and sewer department, the solid waste department, the municipal marina an the airport.  None of the salaries of enterprise funds employees are paid for through taxes – period.

When benchmarking statists are not misused to create the false impression that the city’s staff in “bloated,” they reveal a different story. Comparing Vero Beach’s general fund employee count to Stuart’s, as an example, Vero Beach has one employee for ever 74 residents, Stuart one per 81 residents.  Though the two cities are comparable in population size, Vero Beach has nearly twice the land area.  When Zahner “reports” the city of Vero Beach has “unparalleled” staffing levels, she is simply repackaging Turner’s and Heran’s rhetoric, and trying to sell it as fact.

In an August 22 story, which was not labeled as analysis or opinion,  Zahner wrote, “Each of these (budget) cuts was protested with emphatic and personal pleas, piling onto council members the responsibility that should be on the heads of departments – implementing budget reductions.”

Well, it may be Zahner’s opinion that decisions about specific staffing cuts “should” be made by department heads, but her assertion falls far short of qualifying as an indisputable fact.

In the same story, Zahner wrote, “…but the real hurdle stopping city hall from trimming the size of government is that its chief inhabitants simply don’t want to do it.   In fact, they spend as much time obfuscating – and even directly fighting attempts to reduce expenses – as they do finding ways to run the city more efficiently.”

Notice that in continuing to push her opinion that the city is overstaffed, and in accusing city staff of “obfuscating,” Zahner never bothers to inform her readers that with the 2013-2014 budget, the city will have cut its headcount by 28 percent since 2008.

Not only is Zahner not reporting the whole story, she is not distinguishing between opinion and fact.  For failing to clearly identify this story as an opinion piece, Zahner and her editors would receive a well-deserved “F” from any respectable professor of journalism.

In a September 12 story on the Vero Beach City Council race, Zahner continued to peddle her assumption that the city is over staffed. “When it came down to saving taxpayer dollars, however, Winger failed to vote for any meaningful reduction in the bloated city payroll or expenditures,” she wrote.

Zahner and the editors of Vero Beach 32963 may be swayed by Pilar Turner or she may be persuaded by them, but it seems pretty clear they are working off the same unsubstantiated assumptions that the city can do no right.  There is no city council member more critical of staff and more wedded to bogus benchmarking statistics than Pilar Turner.

Interestingly, Zahner soft-peddled the newspaper’s earlier harsh criticism of Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll.  “Despite coming under fire for what critics describe as arrogance, Carroll expressed pride in both her popular appeal in 2010 and 2011 and in what she’s accomplished since elected,” she wrote.

Zahner did not bother to inform her readers that Carroll’s “critics” include Vero Beach 32963.  In fact, in an August 8 editorial, the island weekly took the following position.

“Frankly, we don’t see how Tracy Carroll wins re-election.

“We backed her in her first run for office in 2009, when she championed getting Vero Beach out of the electric business, and supported her re-election bid in 2011.  Her position on this remains rock solid.

“But she has a variety of other problems of her own making.  Like many others, we are troubled by the sight of Vero elected officials in effect thumbing her nose at city employees attempt to enforce a municipal ordinance against renting out a home she owns in a residential neighborhood by the week.

“Our preference would be to see Carroll announce her intention to retire from the Council at the end of her current term, and make way for a strong, electable pro-sale candidate to take her place.”

That is hardly a ringing endorsement of Carroll by the editors of Vero Beach 32963.

Another example of a “Zahner’s zingers” appeared in a Sept. 6 story on VeroNews.com, Vero Beach 32963’s companion online news service. In a story headlined, “Six on ballot for Vero Beach City Council,” Zahner wrote, “She (Vice Mayor Tracy Carroll) was part of a slate of four candidates ushered in as “Operation Clean Sweep,” a grassroots campaign designed to unseat the recalcitrant council members who were blocking efforts to sell the electric utility.”

“Recalcitrant” is, to say the least, a loaded word choice for what was supposedly an unbiased news story.   What exactly does Zahner mean by her use of that word? Is it that a few council members had not been compliant with or obedient to the wishes of the island weekly?

In a July 4 story, which was heaven-laden with Zahner’s opinions, the island weekly reported, “Forced by the impending Vero electric sale to Florida Power and Light to finally impose realistic staffing levels citywide, Vero Beach managers appear to be making a vote for those cuts at next week’s budget workshops as politically painful as possible for the City Council.”

I use the word “reported” loosely in this instance, because all that is being “reported” is the writer’s opinion.

Everyone has a right to their opinions, even reporters and editors.  But when those opinions are peddled as facts, the public suffers a disservice.