Imagine.
That’s the word The State used to begin its eight-day assault on the Department of Health and Environmental Control. So let’s imagine.
Imagine a newspaper that reports only select facts they decide are important.
Imagine a series with misleading conclusions arrived at through innuendos, dredging up stories from more than 20 years ago, most of which have been refuted, and reporting them inaccurately again.
Imagine a newspaper whose reporters have traded objective reporting for “gotcha’” journalism and half-truth mudslinging, while at the same time so enamored with itself that it takes three paragraphs to pat its reporters and photographer on the backs.
Imagine no more. That publication exists as The State and there are others who obviously work in conjunction with them on misrepresentation of fact after fact in an effort to make an agency, its employees, commissioner and board look bad, in an attempt to advance its own political agenda or to seek some journalism award.
If anyone knew all the facts in any of The State’s stories, it would take a very good imagination to accept their conclusions.
Based on my experience and observations, I find these attacks not only misleading but unjust. Since I became chairman of DHEC’s governing board in 2006, I have been continually impressed with the diligence, commitment and dedication of those employees, certainly including Commissioner Earl Hunter, with whom I have dealt. Is the agency perfect? I know of no organization made up of 4,200 employees that can boast perfection but this one is very good.
Do not misunderstand, I fully believe that DHEC, like any public body, is accountable to the citizens it serves. Accordingly, it is subject to responsible, accurate criticism if it fails our citizens. Yet, for The State to criticize this agency with articles that are portrayed as complete fact but which are based only on a part of the story, is, in my opinion, quite irresponsible.
The fact of the matter is that The State and most of those quoted in their series, need DHEC. They have decided that this agency is the villain and they are the self-anointed righteous vindicators protecting the public. Truth is they’re more interested in protecting their bottom line, billable hours or such political clout as they think they may possess, seemingly caring not a whit for the truth, only for what advances their own motives.
This newspaper, like others, imposes word count restrictions on any external responses to their reporting whether it be my response here or a letter to the editor. Because of those constraints, refuting the many accusations in this series would require more space than what is readily available here. For our perspective on this series and the subsequent editorials that I’m sure will appear, I invite you to our Web site at www.scdhec.gov.
Now here’s a fact you don’t have to imagine. In the midst of state budget reductions and fewer staff doing more work, we’ll spend taxpayer dollars laying to rest these ridiculous and self-serving allegations. Trust me when I tell you the taxpayers of this great state have paid quite the tab in the last eight months as staff have had to stop what they were doing to respond to question after question, some of which were asked multiple times in a thinly-veiled attempt to get an answer the reporters wanted, not the full facts of the matter. The State’s reporters spent some four hours with Commissioner Earl Hunter in face-to-face interviews, only to have things misrepresented to the majority of readers who never make it past the headline and first three paragraphs.
Imagine? No. I believe this newspaper is doing a disservice to its readers in casting as fact what is actually subjection, to DHEC employees and their families through the creation of undeserved public doubt, and to the taxpayers of South Carolina in wasting tax dollars through unnecessarily protracted interrogation.
Paul “Bo” Aughtry is chair of the S.C. Board of Health and Environmental Control
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