Officials' silence a disservice to all

The Post Falls reader did what we ask readers to do. He wrote.

“I don't know Mr. Banducci personally. I do know what I have read in your paper,” the man wrote recently. “I have read only non-confirmed complaints by Ms. Wood and little to no effort to inform us on Mr. Banducci's side of the story. Please DO YOUR JOB. I want to read both sides of the story.”

To the Post Falls reader/writer: We want to report both sides of the story just as much as you want to read them. So maybe we can help each other.

For as long as ink has dried on newsprint, reporters have tried to get both sides of disputes to tell their stories. And for the most part, they have.

But something is changing in society. It’s an increasingly one-sided game plan by public officials to “control the message.” That is, don’t talk to reporters who might ask questions that are difficult to answer, the public's right to know be damned.

This generation of elected official posts his or her spin on Twitter or Facebook or other social media, where they don’t have to answer someone’s tough questions; they answer only the questions they want to answer, the way they want to answer them (which often is no answer at all).

We don’t know how much Todd Banducci, chair of North Idaho College’s Board of Trustees, relies on social media to get his messages across, but he has generally ignored requests for comment from Press reporters since becoming a trustee. To his credit, he broke that silence by returning a reporter's phone call recently, and his side of a disagreement with Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin was published as a result.

In limited instances regarding NIC, Banducci has issued a brief statement through the college’s communications department. The problem is that issuing statements does not allow for actual discussion that might illuminate complicated or emotional issues.

A handful of local legislators ignore most or all requests for comment or explanation. Other elected officials will respond only to email — and again, they don’t always answer the questions that are asked.

While some among the mum "public servants" think they’re hurting The Press through silence, the citizens they allegedly serve are the ones getting shortchanged.

So here’s how we might help each other.

Acknowledging that trust on both sides of communication gaps can be weak at best, The Press will offer to record interviews with elected officials and post those interviews, unedited, with the articles on cdapress.com. That way, if we really have misquoted a source, implied something that isn’t true or taken a comment out of context, the proof will be out in the open, where it belongs.

Readers can pitch in by encouraging their elected officials to do actual interviews and answer journalists' questions, with the interview recorded and distributed, unedited.

Even if we can't come to agreement, maybe we can at least come to greater understanding.