Monday, October 29, 2007

The weekly Political Roundtable on WRNI (1290 AM) can now be found online, and Scott MacKay, a veteran political reporter at the ProJo, used the occasion last week to share some thoughts on the ongoing conflict between the Journal and the administration of Governor Carcieri.

MacKay noted that the ProJo has endorsed Carcieri during each of his gubernatorial runs. "There's always going to be an adversary relationship between reporters and the government," said the reporter, adding that that's what the First Amendment is all about.

URI's Maureen Moakley said the current conflict follows a pattern in which the ProJo traditionally endorses Republican governors and grows highly critical of them toward the end of their terms. Since Carcieri has more than three years left in office, as she noted, it could be a bumpy road.

But MacKay says he thinks the clash between the governor and Rhode Island's dominant daily is all about "Second-term-itis," and not anything related to the ProJo.

"If you look at the coverage on Carcieri from an objective standpoint -- frankly, nobody's objective and perhaps I'm not, given that they are my employer," says MacKay, "the fact is, it hasn't been any more aggressive than any other governorship. And frankly, if you look back at [Ed] DiPrete, or if you look back at [Bruce] Sundlun, during the banking crisis, coverage was, frankly, far more aggressive."