The following is an editorial that appeared in this newspaper back in 2005. In light of the situation that occurred at Tuesday’s meeting of the Waverly Village Trustees, we feel that it is necessary to update this column and reprint it.
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    Accountability.
    It is a phrase that keeps coming up lately when people talk about any particular subject whether it be accountability in their school systems, accountability in the military or accountability with government officials.
    Our use of the word will focus on local government officials. We believe there are some officials which seem to think that by blaming their local newspaper for alleged wrongs they will come out of a controversial situation in a good light with their constituents.
We’re here to tell them they are wrong.
    The latest incident of government officials blaming newspapers for the troubles being stirred up in their communities occurred Tuesday during a meeting of the Waverly Village Board of Trustees.
    During that session, Waverly Village Trustee Todd Williams blamed the local media for alleged misinformation that was printed regarding the renovation of the Ithaca Street school to use as a potential office complex for the village.
    In that article, printed on June 4, Williams was quoted as saying that he believed the renovation of the Ithaca Street school would cost $3 million more than the restoration of the Waverly Village Hall, which has been estimated at $2 million.
    At no point since that story was written has Mr. Williams contacted this newspaper to ask for either a clarification or a correction. Instead he criticizes this newspaper for allegedly misquoting him.
    Instead of taking responsibility for the fact he may have made an error in judgment by stating a figure without any substantiation behind that number, Mr. Williams seems to have decided that his line of defense will be to blame the local media for the controversy that has resulted from his statement.
    “Blame The Media” seems to be the latest game some local government officials are playing when something controversial rears its head, and it is a game we’re not willing to participate in.
    Mistakes can be made by newspapers. After all, the producers of newspapers are human like anyone else. Ensuring accuracy is a goal of every reporter at the Morning Times and when we make a mistake we do not take it lightly, but with the vast amount of local news coverage that we report on, mistakes are indeed a possibility.
    Therefore, we must rely on the local elected officials to contact us if we make such a mistake. We are always willing to work with those municipal leaders, either by writing a clarifying story, publishing a correction or additional stories to make sure more information is disseminated.
    In this case, and in many cases, these calls were not made.
    Elected officials must be held accountable. If misinformation is somehow distributed into the public, and they are aware of it, they need to be the first people to step up and work to bring the correct information to the public— not look for scapegoats to blame their problems on.
    To those government officials who believe that blaming the media for everything will get those angry community members off your back, we say ENOUGH.
    To them, we say “Begin taking some accountability for any misinformation being circulated throughout the community.”
    You can do that through phone calls to this office, letters or e-mails sent to this office or by writing an op-ed piece of this subject to help educate the public.
    But don’t take the easy way out and blame the local media. We’re tired of being your scapegoats.