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On Sep. 30, The Citizen sent an email to all six Peachtree City Council candidates containing 13 questions for our Candidate Comparison in their own words. Candidates were all blind copied on one email chain and received identical instructions. Candidates were informed that their answers were limited to 250 words each, and were due one week later on Oct. 6. After receiving their answers, we compiled them side-by-side for each race.
The only thing removed from candidates’ submissions was external links. There were four different candidates who had links removed from their submission: Mayor Kim Learnard, Steve Brown, James Clifton and Michael Polacek. Why remove links? We made an editorial decision that all candidate questions needed to stand on their own. As an online newspaper, we are not going to provide unpaid promotion for anyone’s campaign, business or cause.
We were disappointed to see that on Tuesday, mayoral candidate Steve Brown accused The Citizen of “deleting portions of our answers” and “amending the rules after we had sent in our replies” in a video posted to his campaign Facebook page.
This is a false and damaging claim. The Citizen never changed the rules, nor did we delete portions of his answers, other than removing in line hyperlinks to a third party website.
Steve Brown emailed the editor on Oct. 9 and made a request to rewrite his answers because his links were removed, which The Citizen denied. It would not be fair to allow a candidate to edit his or her answers after the piece had already been published. By that time, they would have already seen their opponent’s answers. It would be cheating to let them respond in kind.
When Steve Brown submitted his answers on the day they were due, he told us in an email that the reason he had not sent them sooner was his concern that The Citizen would share his answers with his opponent. That did not happen and will not ever happen at our newspaper.
Councilman Clint Holland exceeded the 250 word limit on three of his answers. Each of his answers that exceeded the word limit were cut off at exactly 250 words and clearly marked for our readers. There was an editor’s note explaining the rule. Holland never complained to The Citizen about this.
We are speaking out today because Steve Brown’s false and damaging claim undermines your confidence in our capacity to share the news and we will soon be publishing a candidate Q&A for both Brooks and Fayetteville.
We have seen some national surveys that while trust has eroded in many national news sources, that local news sources are still trusted. We want to be that for you.
We’ve done our best to facilitate a place where people on both sides of the aisle can share their opinions with respect. We look to cover the news that impacts the residents of Fayette and Coweta. We strive to create a place where nonprofits are promoted, people are honored, and the community is strengthened.
And some of you are appreciating it. When we took over ownership and management in November of last year, The Citizen had 50,000 unique visitors. Last month we had 160,000 unique visitors. Thank you for being on this journey with us.
You can see The PTC Candidate Q&As here:
Mayor Learnard vs. Steve Brown
