'Asbury Park Press' Corzine Cartoon Draws Statehouse Complaint

By: Joe Strupp When the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press wanted a Page One image to go with a package of stories on Gov. Jon Corzine's controversial plan to borrow money against the state's toll roads, a mere photo would not suffice.

So Executive Editor William "Skip" Hidlay approved an illustration for Sunday's paper showing Corzine, a Democrat, in a hat and tweed coat, opening one side to reveal cars pinned to the inner lining like a peddler offering his trinkets.

Under the headline, "Hocking the highways," the accompanying stories investigated how Corzine's plan would likely increase tolls. "We weren't attempting to show the governor in any kind of sinister light," Hidlay told E&P. "We were looking for a way to illustrate a very complex problem that is difficult to show visually."

The image can be seen at:
http://www.newseum.org/media/dfp/pdf25/NJ_APP.pdf

The approach did not sit well with Corzine's office, which responded Monday with a terse press release that included an open letter to the paper calling the image "a tremendous disservice."

"While working with photo editing software may be a useful tool for assembling gag photos or correcting minor imperfections, using it to manipulate the Governor - any governor - into a sinister character is not what we would expect from a responsible media organization," Corzine's chief of staff, Bradley Abelow, wrote in the release. "As we enter the important debate on how best to restructure New Jersey?s finances to better serve the public, the free press must do so without their own opinion or agenda. Images that are nothing more than editorial cartoons morphed into photographs are fine ? for the editorial page. But placement of such images on the front page of the Sunday edition demonstrates a blatant disregard for objective reporting. For that, I believe you owe your readers an apology and a renewed commitment to presenting the facts in an unbiased, straightforward manner rather than telling them what they should think."

The paper published the entire release as a letter to the editor on Tuesday, but Hidlay said no apology would be forthcoming. "We think the reporting is outstanding and frames the issue for New Jersey readers," he said. "It is no different from what any other news organization has done in the past."

The illustration has also sparked some mixed reaction on New Jersey's growing political blogosphere.

Bluejersey.com, a pro-Democratic site, has posted items criticizing the Press for "partisan hackery," saying if the paper's "editorial board were any more transparent, they'd have to report their work as in-kind campaign contributions to the state GOP."

But another site, www.inthelobby.net, came out defending the Press's work and attacking Corzine's office for making it an issue. Saying the "photo illustration of Corzine?is one of the funniest things we?ve ever seen," the blog goes on to address Abelow's letter, noting, "One certainly gets the idea that Abelow and his boss are thin-skinned when it comes to criticism. Which leads us to ask: What did they think they were getting into when they entered politics in the first place?"