Richmond's media failure to fight for openness hurts their credibility

Goldman won't attend closed, no-press or public invited debate-style forum before a private, membership-only group

"In any other major city in America, the local press would be demanding to be present, anything less would be seen as a total abdication of journalistic responsibility. The group might refuse, but at least the media would try."

Here are excerpts from today's RTD story:

Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 - Excerpts

By WILL JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Richmond mayoral candidate Paul Goldman is withdrawing from an appearance before a group of corporate leaders, saying the closed meeting highlights the "plantation mentality" that he's running to change.

"I know of no place else in the country where a private group thinks all the candidates for mayor will show up for a private debate before them -- no press, no public," Goldman said yesterday at a news conference outside The Jefferson Hotel, where the Management Round Table is planning its Sept. 29 breakfast meeting.

Robert C. Sledd, Round Table chairman, said Goldman is "trying to make a mountain out of a molehill."

"There are forums for the media and public to attend," he said. "This is just an opportunity for business folks to hear what the mayoral candidates have to say. There's nothing mysterious."

Goldman, whose campaign has garnered no financial support from business leaders, said he was told the meeting would be closed because "it always has been."

"The office [of mayor] itself isn't for purchase," he said. "It's not for ownership by any private group. It is for the people, and the way you demonstrate that is when you . . . campaign openly. . . . I'm not going to fall for what I call this plantation mentality. I'm the guy that wants to change it."

The Management Round Table has about 60 corporate leaders as members who meet about five times a year to hear about community issues, said Sledd, former chairman and chief executive officer of Performance Food Group.

He said the breakfast meeting isn't a forum, although an agenda says the candidates will present their platforms and take questions from the audience.

Forty members of the Round Table are expected to attend, including executives with Bon Secours, Capital One, Bank of America, Wachovia Bank, Troutman Sanders, Williams Mullen, McGuireWoods, NewMarket Corp., Ukrop's Super Markets, Scott & Stringfellow and Media General Inc., the parent company of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"It is our hope that the session will be valuable for you too, as most MRT members have not yet committed to a candidate," organizer Tayloe Negus said in an e-mail to Goldman.

Sledd said the Round Table, as a registered civic organization, is prohibited from making political contributions.

Other mayoral candidates aren't objecting to the meeting.

"There are plenty of opportunities for the general public and Richmond city voters to attend a public forum and see the candidates in action," said Craig Bieber, campaign manager for William J. Pantele.

Lisa Fulton, campaign manager for Robert J. Grey Jr., said Grey plans to attend the meeting. "While it would be our hope that all events are open to the press, those decisions are ultimately that of the hosts," she said in an e-mail.

Dwight Clinton Jones will tell the business leaders the same things he tells residents when he's campaigning door to door, campaign manager Kevin O'Holleran said.