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Legitimate news takes many forms

I would like to comment on the letter from Michael Seeley (“Reporters need to get better at doing their jobs,” Oct. 28-Nov. 3).

First, a reporter’s job is to bring the news to the people — truthful and unbiased news. This means every statement made should be fact-checked for accuracy. That means not just taking the word of a candidate at face value.

As for sticking with “how the candidates plan to address the issues at hand,” the history of the candidate is relevant to whether the candidate will keep his or her word. It is not unheard of for a candidate to pander to the electorate.

If the candidate is a “family values” candidate and has a continuing affair on the side, it is relevant. In the same context, it is relevant if a family values candidate is on a third marriage.

If a candidate against homosexuality was caught in a same-sex tryst, that is relevant.

If the candidate now espouses something the candidate was against in the past, or vice versa, then it is relevant. Getting or taking tax credits for one’s business and then to be against them is pandering and hypocritical.

A reporter is obligated to report these things when in fact they are true. This allows a voter to make an informed choice.

And next, his statement, “I would like to know why Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s wife left him and threw him out of the house.” If she left him and threw him out of the house, does that mean that no one is living there now?

Does Seeley have any theories and facts that lead him in that direction, or is this just a rhetorical question? Or one that is used in “push polling,” such as, “If I told you John Doe was arrested for child molesting, would that affect the way you voted?”

There are a lot of things I would like to know: How magicians make airplanes disappear. How Warren Buffet does it. I could probably name a hundred other things.

Did Seeley get paid by anyone for writing the letter — by who and how much? That is one more thing I would like to know.

That is like his question: just off the top of my head, without any facts to even ask it.

Jerry Schreibersdorf

Douglaston