Letter: ‘Your coverage appears to be biased, and yes, somewhat racist’

Potomac Local News has received multiple emails following a newsletter that we sent out yesterday morning.

Sharon Terrill, of Occoquan, writes:

Your email deeply concerns me. I had started a subscription to this paper last year as I thought it important to support local news, but your coverage appears to be biased, and yes, somewhat racist, which makes me question that decision.

You said, “A group of Black Lives Matter protestors marched into the Supervisors Chamber, with little regard or respect for the public body, or the service it has provided over the years to the more than a half-million people that live in the county, and hurled insults at all of our elected leaders.

If you’ve read our coverage, you know what I’m talking about.

I hope our leaders won’t be deterred after the way they were treated last night by speakers who clearly didn’t want to communicate in any meaningful way — as many appeared to just want to scream and to use profanity while calling for the abolishment of our police department and of the United States.”

I’m curious as to how you arrived at the belief that the public body has actually “served” the citizens it is supposed to serve. Considering the amount of anger from the protestors, it would indicate to me that there is an issue that needs to be addressed, and to discount their valid concerns because they allowed their anger to be seen is a disservice to them. They are angry, and rightly so. I’d very much appreciate you revisiting your words, and that you actually try and see things from their point of view. From your comments, you obviously are not.

Sharon,

Thank you for your letter. I think it’s quite clear the Prince William County Board of Supervisors has served the residents of the county, both new and old.

The county has a functioning road network. It routinely provides mass transit options for Its residents, including OmniRide, Virginia Railway Express, and funding for Metro. County residents have electricity and water. The landfill is open for public refuse disposal.

The county has a robust system of parks available for everyone to use. The county police department has a 93% citizen approval rating. The county funds the salaries of competent judges who work in a clean, efficient, and well-funded courthouse so that if and when you need the resources of the law, you can access them.

The county has a robust social services department that cares for the needs of its most vulnerable citizens. Most importantly, thanks to the Board of County Supervisors’ annual decision to automatically give 57% of the county’s total budget to the school system, schools are well funded and are able to provide for the education of our children.

Theses are “streetlight” issues that the Board of County Supervisors are charged with.

This service to the community has attracted many employers to the region, to include major medical providers like UVA Health System/Novant Health Prince Willaim and Haymarket medical centers, Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, as well as biomedical research companies to the Innovation at Prince William Business Park outside Manassas. The FBI has its Northern Virginia Headquarters at Innovation, and many logistics operations, including McLane, Martin Brower, FedEx, and US Foods all operate in Prince William County.

The county, in cooperation with Manassas City, funds the state’s largest and busiest municipal airport, Manassas Regional Airport, to further attract jobs and provide access to the region.

Overall, if the Board of County Supervisors wasn’t serving its residents, I would question why Prince William County is now the second most populated jurisdiction in Virginia. People know a good deal — and a good place to live, work, and raise a family — when they see one.

Terry Anderson, of Orange, writes:

As a professional journalist and journalism professor, I have to say you don’t sound at all objective or fair. You sound like a shill for the board. They are the ones you’re supposed to keep under a critical eye. Try [public relations.] Seems more your speed.

Also, hard to watch is unarmed, innocent young men being murdered, and peaceful protestors being beaten to the ground by club-wielding police. A meeting full of protestors exercising their right to petition their government, even if unruly, doesn’t come up to the standard of hard to watch.