Sayonara to Erie Times-News "public editor"

A couple weeks ago, I noted here the lack of a "public
editor" credit on recent Liz Allen columns whose content
would normally call for such a credit line.

I speculated that its absence may foretell an unannounced
decision by the Erie Times-News quietly to eliminate that position.

Liz is the third Times-News staffer to hold the "public
editor" assignment, following Jeff Pinski and Kevin Cuneo,
since it's inception five or six years ago, although I
may be a year or two off. Pinski held the title longest,
3 or 4 years; Cuneo one or two, and Liz only a few months.

Over the past couple weeks, events seem to confirm my
earlier speculation that the position has been quietly dropped,
as there's been no "public editor" credit on any of Allen's
columns in the interim.

This includes her last column on editorial matters which
appeared in Sunday's paper calling for reader contributions
to the Times-News's Op-Ed pages on the forthcoming general
election. Once again, no "public editor" credit line.

If my specualtion is correct, dropping the public editor title
is a development too long in coming, because it's been a fraud from
its outset. As I've pointed out here repeatedly over the past
couple years, the role of the public editor is to serve as an
advocate and voice within the newspaper for the readers.

But its Times-News practitioners have instead turned the function
on its head and converted it into a shrill mouthpiece for the
newspaper and its editorial, news and related operations.