State Legislators Cry Foul on Sentinel Coverage

Two state legislators claim that the Montgomery Sentinel has inaccurately characterized their responses on the slots issue. These are serious allegations that the Sentinel must address immediately.

In Part Two of our series reprinting the Sentinel's questions to state legislators on slots, we reported the Sentinel's statement that it did not receive return communications from Delegates Bill Bronrott and Bill Frick, both of District 16. Both Delegates claim that is untrue.

Delegate Bronrott told me, "The reporter and I traded calls a couple of times. While we did not connect in time to have a conversation before his deadline, I did leave him a message letting him know that I oppose the slots referendum." Nevertheless, Sentinel reporter Joe Slaninka wrote, "Though the Montgomery Sentinel tried repeatedly to get in contact with Bronrott, by press time he still had not returned our phone calls."

Delegate Frick received an email from Slaninka on Tuesday, October 14 at 11:56 AM saying:

Dear Delegate or Senator,

I am polling the Montgomery County Delegation about your positions on the Slots Referendum on the upcoming November ballot. I am asking for your position (either for or against) and your reasons for your position. If you are against, I am also asking what alternatives you would like to see to help fix the current budget crisis in Maryland.

I have a deadline of tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 15) so I would appreciate it if you could respond as soon as possible. You can respond to this email or you can call me at my office or on my cell phone (provided below). I appreciate your time and I look forward to hearing from you very soon. Thank you.

Delegate Frick emailed Slaninka four minutes later:

Joe, I am voting "no" on the referendum.

Nevertheless, Slaninka wrote, "Though the Montgomery Sentinel tried repeatedly to get in contact with Frick, by press time he still had not returned our phone calls."

This is irresponsible press coverage on multiple levels. First, given the woeful understaffing of state legislative offices when the General Assembly is out of session, it is absolutely unreasonable to give them 24 hours notice to respond to press questions. Anyone who covers Annapolis would understand this. Second, the Sentinel blatantly mischaracterized these two Delegates as unresponsive when they in fact did reach out to the reporter. In Frick's case, he did so in four minutes.

The Sentinel's editors need to investigate this and issue a retraction and an apology to these two Delegates. And they should do it yesterday.