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Thank you for the opportunity to clarify my comments regarding the recent articles about the court decision just handed down involving HUD and Westchester County.
It seems I can no longer comment on DV articles directly because my “group” page on Facebook is not compatible with your new format.
Initially I contacted you via email because the first article was written using only a press release as the source material -- not what I would consider a sound journalistic practice.
In a follow-up conversation with your reporter, I directed him to the actual court decision.
The second story, in my opinion, failed to highlight how lopsided the decision really was and instead relied upon my words rather than performing an analysis of the judge’s words. Your readers deserve better.
I was mostly troubled, however, by the (County Legislator Ken) Jenkins comments regarding the Astorino Administration as they were presented in such a way (perhaps not intentionally) that it appeared I shared his opinions. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rob Astorino has led a principled fight to preserve home rule for his municipalities and against Federal Government overreach. It was indeed gratifying to have that one paragraph in the decision that stated that there had been no evidence of intentional discrimination on the part of Westchester municipalities now on the record.
A truly fair and balanced article would have pointed out the facts as they were: that while the County badly lost the legal case it brought, it won an important point anyway. So the press release (as they often do) actually snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat.
In closing, I will say that Mr. (Jon) Craig was quite accurate in presenting my quotes in the article. So like Joshua Chamberlain at Appomattox, he has earned a salute from me for that.
Richard Lyman,
Pound Ridge
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