How does the "public editor" castigate himself?

One of the reasons Kevin Cuneo is unqualified
for his role as “public editor” of the Erie
Times-News is because he continues to commit
violence to journalistic principles and ethics in
his other conflicting roles at the newspaper for
which a real public editor would castigate him.
But he can’t really castigate himself now, can he.

In recent posts I’ve demonstrated how Kevin
has used - or I should say misused and
abused – his position as “public editor” to
represent and advocate the newspaper’s
perspectives and points of views, rather
than the readers’.

Indeed, all to often he has distorted issues in
order to justify and defend the Times-News’s
contrary bias. (For evidence thereof, please refer
back to my posts below: “The myth of the
Times-News’s “public editor” and “A letter
FROM the Editor,” among others).

His latest offenses may be found in today’s
gossip column entitled “Word spreads about
racetrack” in which he once again glamorizes
the twin conceits of horse racing and
gambling at the new Presque Isle Downs and
Casino without ever mentioning the downsides
of these popular activities and some of their
detrimental effects upon the broad public interest.
(For examples of these, please see my earlier
posts: “The Erie Times News and Presque Isle
Downs and Casino;” “The dark side of horse racing,”
and others).

Even given the liberties normally granted to
gossip columnists whose tenuous link to journalism is
already dubious, his column today reads more
like advertising and commercial copy than
newswriting. Whatever it is, it’s not journalism.
I call it junk journalism.

For example, he notes in his column today that
the Washington Post has editorialized that “racing
has proved inept at competing for dollars in the
21st century (sic) marketplace,” but concedes that
while “there’s probably some truth to the Post’s
declaration, racing officials writers and other
experts point to Erie’s track as a ‘prime example
of the positive effects of using gaming revenue to
introduce racing to a new generation’.”

This is known as quoting without attribution, a
cardinal sin against journalism. Who specifically
is being quoted here? Racing officials? writers?
Experts? What are their names. Where were they
quoted and by whom? Surely, whoever they are,
they didn’t all say exactly the same thing in exactly
the same words.

These same unidentified sources are further cited
by Kevin. They “have mentioned the success of
Erie’s Presque Isle Downs & Casino in their advance
coverage ." He quotes further that "Maryland’s
once-thriving horse racing industry is withering on
the vine, and writers keep pointing to the resurgence
of racing in Pennsylvania, and particularly in Erie,
as proof of the magic effects of gaming revenue.”
Magic? I call it bunko art.

He further writes that these unidentified sources
“argue that young people are showing signs of
becoming interested in thoroughbred racing because
they see it as an ‘interactive sport, in which the
spectator becomes a player in the action.’
I don’t know about that,” Kevin says, “but I sure
had a good time at Presque Isle Downs in September.”
Boy, you can’t buy that kind of publicity!

The final straw is that Kevin fails to disclaim or
disclose in his column whether as a representative
of the Times-News he received any freebies from
Downs and Casino management during his “good time
at Presque Isle Downs in September” not available
to the common folks.

The same question needs to be asked of and
answered by the Erie broadcast media who have
polluted the airways with their breathless
and glowing endearments of the Downs and Casino,
in recent months while ignoring their dark sides.