Received today on

Truth really needs no defense! -jsq

I’m glad GBR spoke up for Sam Allen. The VDT article falsely stated
that he had changed his mind about VDT support between Tuesday night &
Wednesday when he spoke at the news release.


I was standing beside Sam
when he complemented one reporter after she interviewed him following the
election returns

at the Bd of Elections Tuesday night.
The compliments
were for her individual professionalism only as he stated to her
that he appreciated that she always put exactly what he said in the
paper. I agreed with his statements & complimented her also, because I
have observed her professionalism in other venues & it is a refreshing
change for some of the VDT reporting heritage.

Sam’s Wednesday comments about the VDT not providing balanced

coverage for


the consolidation issues were true & totally unrelated to the comments he
made to the one reporter the night before. The VDT very overtly slanted
their coverage for the CUEE viewpoint up until the editorial that stated
anti-consolidation efforts were racially motivated because the county did
not want black students in their schools. The VDT officially withdrew
their established CUEE support a few days later & coverage was much
better balanced after that point although there was still some covert
slanting. My guess was the VDT was doing damage control because of the
extreme unprofessionalism of the racial slurs in the editorial. The
VDT even stated in one of their later articles that they had at first
supported CUEE, but withdrew the support when no concrete plan for
school improvements was developed thus verifying that reporting had
been biased. Sam was totally correct in stating that the Times had not
been fair in their coverage & that assessment had nothing to do with
the honest praise he gave the individual reporter who had come on the
scene after the overt misreporting agenda was changed.

The allegations that Sam’s remarks were thinly veiled threats to
the Chamber & the CUEE members were designed to discredit him in the
community. In fact Sam told all of us

at the post elections celebration


that we should forgive and begin healing the community. He stated that he
was giving CUEE a bye this time, but if they tried it again there would
be consequences. Everyone understood that his remarks about a bye were
in relation to the fact many FVCS members had already begun boycotting
Chamber members & businesses that supported CUEE. The future conseguences
were also in reference to morally & legally acceptable boycotts if a
hostile consolidation takeover is again attempted. Sam was actively
discouraging boycotts now, but warning he would not discourage them
for future actions. Once again the VDT slanted their coverage without
getting all the facts, but that’s what we’re used to so I guess we are
back to normal.

-Barbara Stratton