The Chronicle has learned that Croton’s IDEA Advisory Committee, an official village committee whose members are appointed by the mayor and approved by the Board of Trustees, involved itself in trying to vet which local media are “legitimate” and which are not during a meeting on June 12. The discussion at the meeting raises serious and obvious First Amendment issues.
The minutes of the meeting, which reflect the discussions in question, can be found at this link, and were brought to our attention by a local resident. They show that the Committee discussed the reporting of the Chronicle and its editor at some length, and ended by putting Committee members on the alert to “Be mindful of Michael Balter's reporting style and its potential for misinformation.” Higher up in the minutes, the alleged issues were spelled out as follows:
“Michael Balter's Reporting: Concerns about Michael Balter's reporting style, mixing news with opinion, and the Village's platforming of his blog as legitimate journalism.”
As soon as we learned about these minutes and the discussion they reflect, we contacted Mayor Brian Pugh, Village Manager Bryan Healy, and the rest of the trustees to express our concerns about the First Amendment issues this raises. We pointed out that discussions of this kind are not only outside the stated mission of the Committee, but violate the First Amendment, which does not allow government bodies to decide which media outlets are legitimate or not—and certainly does not allow a government appointed committee to actively work to “deplatform” journalistic enterprises.
(The minutes are also incorrect in referring to The Croton Chronicle as a “blog.” The Chronicle is an online newspaper, even if an “unofficial” one, and the mayor and the Board of Trustees—most of whom have written for the Chronicle—have long recognized that. Although the Chronicle uses the Substack platform to publish, that follows a rapidly growing practice among independent media outlets nationwide.)
This afternoon, in response to the concerns we expressed last week, Village Manager Bryan Healy responded as follows:
Thank you for writing about the IDEA Committee. I did not attend the meeting in question, so your inquiry last week was the first I had heard of this discussion. Upon investigation, I determined that the minutes were posted prematurely before being reviewed and approved by the members of the committee. Further, the minutes appear to have been generated with the use of AI, which left areas missing key details and included extraneous information. While we do not have a policy against the use of AI to generate minutes, they must be reviewed prior to posting to ensure they capture the essence of the meeting.
I will be reviewing this information with our committee chairs, as well as reminding them that agendas published in advance of a meeting should be as detailed/specific as possible. The purpose of adopting committee guidelines was to ensure each committee was sharing information and that everyone (members, staff, other committees, the public) could have access to the basic information being reviewed and discussed. The use of generalized terms such as New Business with no clarifying information does not help in that regard.
Sincerely,
Bryan T. Healy
Village Manager
We immediately responded to express our disappointment with this approach to the issue, which completely ignores the serious First Amendment concerns we raised. The suggestion in Healy’s response that the discussion of the Chronicle’s reporting might have been “extraneous” to the rest of the meeting, and was somehow mistakenly scooped up by the AI program used to prepare the minutes, is not at all reassuring, since the Committee members should not have been having this discussion at all in the meeting room at the Municipal Building.
In a followup email, Healy told us:
“I raised your First Amendment concerns with our attorney on Friday when you sent your email. When there is an update to provide, I will do so.”
We also received a statement about this episode from Croton trustee Stacey Nachtaler, who is one of two board liaisons to the IDEA Committee (Nora Nicholson is the other.) Nachtaler wrote:
“In addition to Manager Healy’s comments, I wish to add, this media topic was not on the agenda and Trustee Liaisons were not present when this topic was discussed.
Having said that, the work this committee does in driving a more inclusive culture is very valued by the Village.
We hope to provide greater guidance to all committees around communication in Village meetings, after consulting with our Village lawyer and Board on the matter.”
While the actions of the Committee were clearly inappropriate, we should add that at no time has the IDEA Advisory Committee or any of its members—even as individuals—approached the Chronicle or its editor to ask for a correction of alleged “misinformation” in the publication, or more generally to complain about its accuracy or its editorial policies and practices.
Indeed, one of the ironies of this whole episode is that the Chronicle has done more than any other publication to publicize the IDEA Advisory Committee’s activities. Two years running, we covered the raising of the Pride Flag with articles about the history of this important symbol; also two years running, we publicized the Committee’s educational and celebratory activities around Juneteenth, and provided some detailed history of that historic event which ended slavery in the United States.
We have also extensively covered a number of events held by the Lorraine Hansberry Coalition, which is affiliated with the IDEA Committee, publishing lengthy descriptions of them. Yet the June 12 minutes, in the item about the Coalition’s last event on May 17, note only the unexpected appearance of News 12 Westchester, and made no mention at all about the Chronicle’s own article about that event.
We will be publishing a Guest Editorial by a local expert on the First Amendment shortly, which will go into much more detail about the constitutional issues the Committee’s misguided June 12 discussion have raised. At a time when the Trump administration is launching frequent attacks on freedom of the press, one would think that village officials would be much more alarmed about one of their own official committees engaging in similar behavior.
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If the trustee quoted is looking for a more “inclusive culture” in Croton, she should appreciate the Chronicle. It provides the only platform for people concerned about issues the town leadership would rather not discuss.
thanks for keeping on top of this issue. There's such fear of independent media in certain quarters. Thanks for your work in keeping us all apprised of the fascinating happenings in the village