Accenting double negatives

By The Numbers for Week 8 of the Prep Football Season
October 28, 2015
Lafourche, Terrebone Halloweens moved to Friday
October 28, 2015
By The Numbers for Week 8 of the Prep Football Season
October 28, 2015
Lafourche, Terrebone Halloweens moved to Friday
October 28, 2015

The campaign signs will still be visible for a while, multi-colored weeds along roadsides and in front yards, most bearing the simple legend of a name and maybe a picture or – in some cases – what amounts to a candidate’s cut-out, larger than life effigy.

The process we use to select representatives and executives for government in a democracy’s system is contentious and at times distasteful.

But the campaigns are a necessary evil, as are the television and radio ads that pound seses beyond the visual.


We held an election here Saturday and out of it we got a new parish president, a few new parish council members, and candidates for governor, president of one parish and other contenders who will have to continue seeking votes leading up to a general election scheduled for Nov. 21, when the final victors shall emerge.

So it’s going to be nearly another month of ugliness on the airwaves.

The very local races – for the most part – have a lesser degree of animus. We have, after all, had to live next to each other on these narrow strips of land next to the bayous both during election time and after. Outright public attacks on one candidate from another, with some exceptions, are not so prevalent.


But they do exist.

What is distressing about the process is the use of half-truths by all sides to paint the opposition in colors of one’s own choice, to define the other in the minds of the electorate.

Yet for all the criticism of so-called “negative” campaigning there are some things to be said in its favor, so long as the “negativity” is properly rooted in fact.


More distressing to just about anyone who is a journalist is the negative backwash that occurs as Election Day draws near.

In many cases, and in many contests over many years, it is the practice of supporters for one candidate to whisper in the ear of the writer or producer some dastardly accusation about the other guy.

“Have you heard about …” is how such conversations begin.


In some cases the accusations are indeed rooted in fact. But the uncomfortable timing makes it difficult for the journalist to work with the material.

If we are writing about something so close to elections, it can certainly appear that we are trying to influence them.

A great deal of balancing is then required. Do we publicize a thing close to election time even though it may affect a candidate’s chances?


Each individual case requires individual consideration.

My own personal measure as election days draw near is to decide whether an accusation, if proven, reaches the level of an indictable offense, in which case there is certainly a duty to tell the tale.

This task is made less difficult when, during a debate or perhaps even in an advertisement, one candidate makes the accusation against another directly. In that type of situation the utterance itself can become news.


When the alleged offense is the result of someone whispering into the reporter’s ear, the default response is generally to not work with it, at least not during the sensitive election period.

There is a sound logic behind this. Generally, if what you think your opponent did is so onerous, then where was your complaint to a governing authority, whether that be a law enforcement agency, a relevant board or association, or the state Board of Ethics?

If you didn’t think it was bad enough at the time to make the complaint, then I will be hard-pressed to move with it. And if you, out of a desire to not offend, won’t make the accusation yourself, publicly, then I don’t see a need to do your hatchet-work for you .


So for those who have bricks you wish to throw at someone, start your lobbying of myself and others who make a living with the pen way early, before the next election comes around.

You might find that we will pay a wee bit more attention. •