"CONTROLLED (MEDIA) OPPOSITION"

 Tell me it isn't so. Especially when we are talking our only really local newspaper. Four days ago (Tues. Jan. 31/23) an anonymous reader posted that our local newspaper is "controlled opposition". I am especially disappointed in that I see so much public interest being enhanced by the Woolwich Observer. That said the rumour way back in 1995 was that the new newspaper was funded by pro business, pro Uniroyal Chemical interests in direct opposition to Bob Verdun's position and opinions expressed in the Elmira Independent. True or not I embraced the new paper and just like the Elmira Independent read it from cover to cover. In those days (late 90s) I recall many articles in the Observer regarding Uniroyal Chemical and the so called Elmira "cleanup".  Coverage has faded since although every now and then they do publish a good article reminding Elmira and Woolwich residents that a lot of cleanup remains.

What was most heartbreaking for me was the Observer's blatant failure to, as far as I recall, attend and publish TAG meetings in particular between September 2015 and December 2016. That was the heyday of Uniroyal/Chemtura/CRA/M.O.E. public criticism and disparagement from Dr. Richard Jackson. The words of a world renowned environmental remediation expert eviscerating almost everything that Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura both did and failed to do here in Elmira should have been blazed across the front page of the Observer for weeks on end. IT WAS NOT. I'm sorry but that I can never forgive despite still reading the Observer from cover to cover to this day.