Letters

Tom Gogola, a reporter for The Express News Group, confuses cleverness and cuteness with honest, and informative reporting. Disparaging remarks about those he is reporting on only prove his shallowness. One-sided articles illustrate his laziness.

In an article about the swearing in of Maria Moore as town supervisor [“Maria Moore Sworn In as Town Supervisor; BESS Critics Speak Out,” 27east.com, January 3], he calls opponents of siting BESS in a residential area who spoke “frequent fliers.” He explains that the BESS moratorium is ending next month after getting the date of its implementation wrong. He quotes the town website extensively about the great and positive effect of the moratorium. In effect, he is saying, “What more do you ‘frequent fliers’ want? The town has it all under control!”

He opines that the moratorium was “an abrupt reversal that was the result of intense community pushback.” That sounds like a bad thing done to good people. Rather, the town recognized the correctness of the community concerns, none of which Gogola bothers to mention. He fails to mention that the town failed in its commitment to find “experts” during the moratorium to evaluate this wrong placement. He does not mention that trying to “galvanize support” on the part of the BESS developer includes a flyer to all parts of the town except Hampton Bays. He was too lazy to find out about or to report a telling fact.

In another article, Gogola, in describing BESS location protesters managed to demean them. Indeed this was a meeting where the community’s anger boiled over. No information is given outlining the reasons for their anger. Instead, he includes government member quotes and photos. But this meeting helped to further inform the board and as a result the moratorium was enlarged and started. Lithium batteries were no longer “benign.” None of this Gogola reported, then or now.

In another article about the traffic choke point on County Road 39 that terminates in Hampton Bays, we never learn that this is the very place of the proposed BESS installation. Left unsaid is that those living east of the choke point are trapped if the BESS installation has any kind of serious problem. We do get quotes from eastern officials about how hard they are working to solve this serious traffic problem. Officials from Hampton Bays or farther west are dismissed as only being in attendance.

Then Mr. Gogola gives us a puff piece about Lynn Arthur and a bit about CCA. Mr. Gogola’s penchant for photos is satisfied with one of a smiling Ms. Arthur. Unfortunately, all we get is some palaver about CCA, the true purpose of the piece.

Mr. Gogola must/can do better.

Steve Crispinelli

Hampton Bays