Crews continue to work major intersection changes for the area of Wasserman Way at the Exit 11 ramps, Berkshire Road at Wasserman Way, and Berkshire at Toddy Hill Road.
After months of deliberation and much local opposition including a letter of opposition from First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, Newtown Planning and Zoning voted to approve an application for a zone change, apparently clearing the way for a new apartment complex development in Hawleyville.
The Board of Education heard from individuals representing different areas of the Superintendent’s Requested Operational Plan 2023-24 between two recent meetings.
The Board of Selectmen began its department by department review of the budget, looking at the police, fire, public works, and parks & recreation budgets.
President Joseph Biden has ordered flags lowered to half-staff following the shootings on Saturday night in Monterey Park, California, that claimed ten lives.
Real people were just in a frightening car accident. To immediately frame their misfortune as rhetorical ammunition against new housing — affordable housing included — feels less like concern for “health and safety” and more like opportunistically using a scary moment to support a pre-existing position.
If we’re going to debate this proposal, we should do it honestly: with data on traffic volume, accident history, engineering recommendations, and the town’s housing needs, not by seizing on a single crash as proof that 300 apartments are inherently unsafe.
Newtown deserves a thoughtful, fact-based conversation about growth, safety, and affordability — one that doesn’t turn other people’s bad day into a political talking point.
To add context that did not occur at the meeting would not be an accurate representation of the meeting and would, in fact, be editorializing to shape public opinion.
The editorial staff here do not consider ourselves to be final arbiters of what the truth is (and if we did, it would make us partisan and biased), and we would need to provide a source for any dissenting information (sourcing all information in an article is literally Journalism 101). There were no such sources present at the meeting in question, and so it would not be appropriate to include such information in an article about the meeting. Dissenting voices appear in meeting stories when there were active participants with dissenting opinions, such as during public participation or the words of a council member who disagreed. It should be noted that the Interfaith Council, like many local boards and commissions, conduct meetings that are open to the public.
This was not an article on the actions of the Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants, or on immigrants, or on ICE's actions in the community, where including other voices or perspectives would be appropriate. We appreciate your opinion, but we stand by our meeting coverage and consider this discussion closed.
Propaganda is the systematic dissemination of information, often biased or misleading, to shape public perception and behavior toward a specific political cause or point of view. I'm not asking for Newtown Bee to editorialize, but providing context, where appropriate, to provide the reader with a more holistic view of the facts seems like a reasonable practice, particularly when encouraging the reader to decide what to believe/not to believe. Absent that context, this feels biased and misleading and intended to shape public perception.
The Newtown Bee reported what was said at a Newtown Interfaith Council meeting. Whether Mr McGillicuddy agrees with what was said or not, reporting what occurs at a public meeting is not "propaganda." Presenting what was said without editorializing is encouraging the reader to decide what to believe or not believe, and is standard for reporting at a community newspaper like The Newtown Bee.
