#MiddleburyCT #VincentCiprian #MiddleburyBee-Intelligencer
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
This morning, candidate Vincent Cipriano posted the following comments about the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer on Facebook:
“Hello Middlebury
Yes, I declined the filmed interview with the Bee-Intelligencer. I was originally informed that there would be a live debate, which I happily agreed, and was supposed to take place on the 17th of October. Then, for reasons unknown, it was changed to a one on one filmed interview. With all due respect to the Bee, I have been and continue to canvass our town talking with voters face to face and answering their questions directly. For me, this is a far better way to learn the concerns of our voters than a scripted video.”
I hate to lower myself to answer this cheap shot at the Middlebury Bee-Intelligencer, but it is part of an ongoing “freeze her out” campaign that was announced by Tom King and Bob Smith a month or so ago, and as editor and publisher of this newspaper, I need to correct Mr. Cipriano’s misstatements.
There was never to be a live debate. Instead, we hoped to offer voters an event in which all three candidates would answer the same set of questions and afterwards each candidate would have a space in which they could chat with attendees and hand out campaign literature.
I called each of the candidates in mid-September to personally invite them to participate. Ms. Mahr and Mr. McCormack readily agreed. We could not get a firm “yes” out of Mr. Cipriano, and we needed to have his answer by the time the October issue went to the printer on September 24 so we could publicize the event in that issue. Due in large part to delays caused by our attempts to address multiple concerns expressed by Mr. Cipriano, we were not able to put the original event – NOT a debate; NEVER a debate – together in time. We refrained from mentioning that to the other candidates.
The date was to be today, October 16. A September 29 email to the candidates explained the reasons for the change in plans. They were not “unknown.” Here is text from that email: “Because I wasn’t able to get everything in place regarding a location for a public event on October 16, I have moved back to what was first described to you as Plan B. That is filming each of you by yourself answering questions I pose to you. The three interviews will be made into one video containing all three interviews, and it will be posted online.” It turned out the videographer felt it was better to do three videos rather than one with all three interviews in it.
The email also said, “Everyone will be asked the same questions in the same order. and everyone will be given the same amount of time in which to answer. We’ll have some sort of timer there and try to be as unobtrusive in its use as possible. Questions will not be available ahead of time.”
I strongly object to the videos being described as “scripted.” The only parts that were scripted were the introduction and the closing. Neither Ms. Mahr nor Mr. McCormack knew in advance what the questions were going to be. The questions were shared with not a single soul. I was the only one who knew the questions in advance. I wanted to ask another person to look them over but decided not to do so because I wanted to be able to state no one had seen them. I can state that under oath without perjuring myself.
