THE Bega Valley Shire Council Mayor's letter (Mayor accuses News Weekly of bias) strikes me as being another example of uninspiring leadership as well as a personal attack on the Editor and this whole newspaper.

Throwing out claims of systemic bias and then backing them up with one or two isolated incidents is hardly exemplary of clear-thinking and rational argument. Fact is, Cr Allen, newspapers exist to present fact-based news and thus serve a legitimate public function. Their legitimacy extends also to expressing opinion, both of others through interviews and letters, and of their own management through the editorial process.

Have you overlooked this in complaining now about those reports you don't like? What concerns me is that your letter and the advertisement (did we ratepayers fund this?) could be taken to suggest that amongst the councillors there is a general climate of dislike of any opinion other than their own and of questioning decisions they have taken.

This, however, is what "public scrutiny" could be taken to mean.

The mayor and other councillors should realise that the burden of proving a case of bias is theirs alone and the letter just doesn't do it. Nor does the mayor present any argument for the bold assertion that the alleged bias towards BVSC is harming the task of managing staff resources. We don't need a gratuitous explanation of who does what. We deserve instead something more structured to prove these claims, rather than the bleating that seems to have been offered here.

Overall, what we see looks suspiciously like the visceral reaction of those whose goals and sensitivities have been thwarted by other people's differing views. What you are experiencing, councillors, is vox populi expressing their opinions rather than, as you suggest, a mischievous Editor interfering with free speech.