My Two Cents
Apparently we at the newspaper aren’t the only ones who feel frustrated by the lack of information about local conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic. Thursday night while answering a citizen’s question about the five new positive COVID-19 tests the county received in 48 hours, Health Unit director Dana Hartman got more than she bargained for.
The posts were newsworthy — and included in a story first posted online Friday morning — because it seems reasonable that citizens, in order to take steps to protect themselves and others, would want to know where people who have tested positive work and what businesses and other public places they’ve visited.
It’s not unreasonable and this newspaper has been asked repeatedly for that information in the past — and received its fair share of criticism for not being able to get the answers.
On Friday, we learned four more positive test results had come back, bringing the total to nine active COVID-19 cases, and 11 overall positive tests. We also learned Friday the county has no intention of providing information that could help keep people safe. They can protect themselves and their familes, but won’t the rest of us.
Without divulging anything protected by HIPPA or violating anyone’s privacy, that kind of information, can and should be made public. Citizens should be able to expect the county officials entrusted with public safety to provide that information. Officials in the same capacity elsewhere do it routinely.
The public had been told in a Thursday afternoon press release from Scurry County Judge Dan Hicks, which also had Hartman’s signature attached, that their offices “would be unavailable to field additional individual questions for the next few days.” That’s understandable, but also not realistic given the news that after weeks of calm, there were five (at the time) positive tests in just two days. The public had questions. Where else were we supposed to turn for answers?
Good question, because in Scurry County, officials have chosen to speak directly at the public rather than the far larger audiences Snyder’s newspaper and radio stations reach. They’ve chosen to drive the public to a number of websites and social media pages they own and operate and where they can talk at us.
Some are updated regularly, others irregularly and still others have apparently been pulled down.
You can guess why they’re talking at us, and with us — it allows them to avoid follow-up questions to their statements. It’s classic state-run media.
By Friday afternoon, the health unit’s social media page was nowhere to be found and the daily update on the website the county has been directing people to was hours later than normal. In the middle of an outbreak, bloom, hot spot, spike — call it whatever you like — our county’s top officials had begun shutting the tap on the flow of information.
Just when more information is needed most, all we got were a few numbers.
The newspaper was accused of taking Hartman’s online statements out of context, twisting words and misquoting her. We reprinted her responses using the exact same words — and capitalization — that she used online. Since that’s where we’ve been steered to gather information, what else could we do?
Our elected and appointed officials deserve a great deal of deference from the public — but with that comes great responsibility.
We understand you’re tired. We understand you can’t answer all our questions. We understand you have families and loved ones you’re concerned about like the rest of us. All we ask is that you shoot straight with us.
Borrowing from the climactic scene in A Few Good Men: The public wants the truth. The public can handle the truth.
And even though those in power sometimes forget this, the public deserves the truth.
Bill Crist is the publisher of The Snyder News. Comments may be emailed to publisher@snyderdailynews.com.