Mark Scaramella1
Member since Jul 1, 2010
Recent Comments
Re: “On Not Reporting”
"Campaign promises"? Which campaign promises? Is Ms. Burstiner seriously claiming that there's a link between a DUI Bust/Failure to Appear and a North Coast politician's campaign promises? In Mendocino County campaign "promises" are things like "I love the ocean." Or, "I promise to look at all sides of the issues before taking any action." Or, "I will follow all the Open Meetings act rules." Yeah, sure. But if you fail to appear for a court date, all those promises are suddenly in doubt?
Re: “DUI or Don't I?”
Of course you should print it. Same as anyone else. Crimes and arrests are reported routinely. Candidate or elected official, whoever. What's there to discuss about that? The question is what do you make of it? How much play does it get? What were the circumstances? What's the history? Is he an alcoholic? What does it say about his candidacy, his judgment, his seriousness? Does he take responsibility or lawyer up and try to avoid? If the incident happened earlier but only recently came to light, what took so long? In these days of on-line news, why not at least put the basics out there soon, and say, More to come...? If you start getting into questions about the appropriateness of publishing information about crimes by anyone, you'll end up in mud. The US constitution says everyone has a right to a speedy and public trial. There's a good reason for that being a "right," particularly the part about "public" -- and all that it implies and entails. Bottom line: Make it public and go from there.
