Reporter James Pindell: Missing in action
The day after a question from James Pindell exposed Scott Brown’s lack of knowledge about New Hampshire geography, the WMUR journalist gave himself a “down arrow” for the incident.
“When a reporter – or a debate panelist – becomes the story then they failed. … The problem wasn’t the Sullivan County question I asked during last night’s U.S. Senate Debate, but my second follow-up,” Pindell wrote in his weekly Political Standing column. “Senator Brown said Sullivan County was north of Concord. I told him no. But, in fact, Sullivan County is north and west of Concord. I was wrong. Really, where Sullivan County lies is irrelevant, but the tone I took with the Senator is relevant. I’m sorry for both.”
Then he disappeared.
“When is Pravda on the Merrimack (aka wmur) going to release James Pindell for the sin of having committed journalism?” asked Democratic activist Paul Twomey.
WMUR has ignored public calls for an explanation and that has Jay Surdukowski concerned. In a heartfelt essay, the legal counsel to Gov. Hassan’s campaign worries about the impact of Pindell’s absence on “our ever dwindling political reportage landscape:”
It may be that Channel 9 and the Hearst Corporation—or the vested interests who pumped millions of dollars of advertising into the station this political cycle—is not happy with James’ now famous geographical question to Senator Scott Brown—a question, regardless of how it was prosecuted, was one that I and others who love our civil liberties should applaud the asking. Sitting in that television studio for what would be the defining moment of the Senate campaign, the thoughts that crossed my mind were many. Is Sullivan County North or West? Did James push too hard? But the thought that rose above all others then and since was that there was a genuine question in the air as to whether one who would be our Senator had the faintest idea of where Sullivan County is, based on his foggy no-answer-answer…
I won’t presume to tell a private business what it should do in a case such as this. But I do hope Channel 9 will at least come clean on whether we will have James’ voice back next week—or if we are entering yet another gradation of darkness on our ever dwindling political reportage landscape. With the AP’s Norma Love gone and Kevin Landrigan and John DiStaso not in print for the first time in nearly my entire lifetime, this past year has been a twilight of our press gods. Each minute that passes without James on the beat is the stuff of great loss.