Editor Mark Pothier’s letter to readers about Town Manager Derek Brindisi’s decision to cut off communications with the Independent has generated an overwhelming response from readers. Here’s sampling of what you’ve had to say. (You can still weigh on this issue: Send your letter to letters@plymouthindependent.org.)
Good job Plymouth Independent, you have struck a nerve. The town manager’s response to your doing your job makes me think the bright light of exposure is long overdue. As a subscriber and a reader of the Independent, I didn’t view the town manager poorly as a result of the articles in question, although I do now. Just a reminder to Mr. Brindisi – you ultimately work for us…the voters and we appreciate being informed. Keep up the good work Independent.
P.S. A communications director…….???
– Bill Murphy
It’s a sad day in Plymouth when elected town officials refuse to answer questions because they get their feelings hurt. Please keep up the great journalism and know residents are counting on you.
– Mark York
In spite of moving out of Plymouth after almost 50 years, I still feel a kinship with the Town and continue to read the Independent. Keep up the good work which you have done your entire career. It is essential. So sorry Plymouth is managed by the present cabal. Hopefully, it will change in time, both locally and in the wider arena.
– Sanford E. Leslie
I am writing to express my extreme displeasure with the behavior of Plymouth’s Town Manager, as reported in today’s Plymouth Independent. The town manager has apparently directed “all appointed town officials to cease all communication with the PI”, claiming that the PI “is out to disgrace and target town officials”.
First of all, the town manager appears to have conflated social media with news media. Social media is the domain of cowards, who feel at liberty to make scurrilous statements because of their anonymity. News media, by contrast, is the domain of journalists, who must stand behind what they write and are therefore accountable for what they write. Articles in news media often generate statements in social media. What the town manager is complaining about is social media and not news media.
As PI’s editor has stated: “Our job as journalists is to hold government officials accountable and to provide readers with the reliable information they need to foster a functioning democracy. In that respect, the relationship between governments and journalists is necessarily adversarial. We’re supposed to be skeptical of people in power…. No official in a position of power should withhold or dispense information of interest to the public based on whether they like or dislike a story, a reporter, or a publication.”
A government official who cannot accept criticism is like a hemophiliac who bleeds whenever he is cut. Simply put, criticism comes with the territory, and it is astounding to me that our town manager does not understand this.
In my opinion, the town manager’s lack of understanding of the foundational role of the press in a democracy is grounds for dismissal – but his defense will surely be that the Select Board members (with the exception of Mr. Canty) apparently fully support the town manager’s futile effort to muzzle the PI. How sad.
– Richard M. Serkey
Serkey is a precinct 2 Town Meeting member.
When I moved to Plymouth in 2022, I was I shocked (maybe more like disturbed) to be unable to find a local newspaper. Once the PI began, I was very grateful to you and your colleagues for making reporting about Plymouth a priority.
I’m simply writing to offer the PI my support. It makes sense to me, unfortunately, that in the year 2025, people in power fear being held accountable. Reporters are invaluable to democracy, and I thank you for your persistence in doing your research and writing.
The articles you reference that disturbed Mr. Brindisi are odd and seem like rather mundane stories. It is curious that the articles upset him.
Please disseminate my gratitude to your colleagues as well.
– Aliza Ray
In a free society, we need total transparency from public officials. The role of the news must be to shine a light on the public business and to hold officials accountable. The public, in turn, can decide for itself what to think and what is in their collective best interests. Our founders understood the lure of power and warned against it. Please keep digging and reporting on what you find.
– Tony Silvestri
I stand behind you and the Plymouth Independent 100 percent. This paper is doing nothing but good journalism and providing an incredible service to this town.
– Pamela Palmer
In his article on the relationship between town government officials and the Plymouth Independent, Mark Pothier writes that when it comes to holding public officials accountable “…the relationship between governments and journalists is necessarily adversarial. We’re supposed to be skeptical of people in power.”
I have enjoyed reading the Plymouth Independent over the past year. But I don’t walk away from this particular story with the view that Brindisi is a censorious overlord attacking the righteous journalists who are merely speaking truth to power. Instead, I think there’s probably plenty of blame to go around to have resulted in such a bizarre stand-off. Perhaps a greater share of the blame lies with one party or the other, but given the article’s emphasis on Brindisi’s actions, I’ll focus on the Independent.
Pothier’s view of the role of journalism seems to me part of the problem. The rise over the past few decades of advocacy journalism, through which journalists view themselves as activists who can change the world through their revelations, may seem like a positive development. But one only need to look around to realize that something has gone very wrong with our media. New technologies have of course contributed to the fracturing of the media landscape, but the lines between reportage and editorializing and activism have become increasingly blurred, and more and more media outlets view themselves as more than just truth-seeking organizations. They take on roles as beacons of morality, defenders of democracy and other ideas and values.
Yet as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. When journalists begin to view themselves from the start as “adversaries” of governments, when they take up as their responsibility a skepticism of anyone in power, they are to some extent giving up on the basic idea of simply reporting what happens and allowing their readers to draw their own conclusions. And this naturally makes their readers suspicious. This what has happened to legacy media over the last two decades. Now people are so distrustful of media that they don’t believe basic facts.
I hope this is not what happens to the Independent, but it may be an unintended consequence. I know that when I read a story in the Independent about town government in future, my reading will be colored by the knowledge of the adversarial relationship that apparently exists between the people writing the story and the people the story is about.
– Jeff Millman
If town officials cannot stand up to scrutiny, then what are they hiding? That is the main thought that comes into a citizen’s mind. Bravo to the PI and Mark Pothier for enlightening the public.
– Stan Wollman
Chicago is home now. But I still read the Plymouth Independent. The latest story about the town manager’s orders brought me back.
I keep a voicemail that Derek Brindisi left me. In it he complains bitterly about a short piece I read on the radio. I had mentioned his current and future salary. It’s a matter of public record. We all know he makes more than most US mayors. He said I was trying to discredit and embarrass him (sound familiar?). When we spoke later I asked why he should feel that way about his salary? Wasn’t he actually earning it? Thin skin was my takeaway.
After this latest town manager article – my takeaway – thinner skin. Also reminds me of a Buffalo Springfield stanza in For What it’s Worth.
“Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the man come and take you away.”
– Birgitta Kuehn
Kuehn is a former member of the planning board.