The (Hanover) Evening Sun, Oct. 16

Casino ads don't buy endorsement

By Marc Charisse
Evening Sun Editor

"Would someone in editorial please dial 120?"

The voice on the office intercom Oct. 12 was deceptively calm, but the message was clear enough to us upstairs.

There was an irate reader downstairs we needed to deal with.

Sure enough, Jim Paddock, the husband of No Casino Gettysburg founder Susan Star Paddock, was waiting downstairs wearing his Civil War Preservation Trust ball cap. And he wasn't happy.

I, on the other hand, was glad to be able to try to clear up an issue that's been bugging me for some time now.

Several weeks ago – so long I don't remember when, exactly – a small ad appeared in The Evening Sun that seemed to endorse a casino in Gettysburg. The ad, built on a template bearing the logos of The Evening Sun and the Gettysburg Adams Area Chamber of Commerce, welcomed Crossroads, the group seeking a slots license in Straban Township, to Adams County. The text in the middle, provided by Crossroads, touted the economic benefits and good jobs it promises.

I cringed when I saw the ad, but decided to let it go unless I received reader complaints.

Still, I raised the issue with our publisher and advertising department. The newspaper's editorial board hasn't endorsed Crossroads, but it sure looked to me like The Evening Sun was endorsing slots, which the ad also seemed to suggest was a done deal.

It was explained to me the ad was the result of a deal with the chamber. All new members get such an ad welcoming them to the community and Crossroads had recently joined the chamber (which, by the way, has endorsed the casino).

But the ad doesn't say any of that, and I wasn't convinced. If the area Internet blogs are to be believed, there are plenty of readers who don't need a lot of persuading that the local media is already in the back pocket of well-heeled Crossroads boss Dave LeVan.

Actually, I don't know how much money, if any, LeVan spends advertising his motorcycle dealership or his proposed casino. And I don't care. I've never been asked by anyone at The Evening Sun (or the other two MediaNews newspapers I've worked for), to let advertising revenue affect my news judgment.

I wouldn't work here if they did, and I like to think they wouldn't want an editor who would.

Of course, the advertising reps cringe when they read something unfavorable on the front page about an advertiser. But they understand it's the price we pay for editorial independence and self-respect.

As a business and community institution, we support the social and economic well-being of our coverage area – that's the idea behind all sorts of initiatives and charities we sponsor. But I've suggested we remove the newspaper's logo from future ads welcoming news businesses. I wouldn't want to see The Evening Sun's logo adorning an ad welcoming a new strip club, for example.

Many people feel the same way about a casino.

Having grown up in wealthy, family friendly Las Vegas, I disagree. I've said as much in past columns, just as I've disagreed in print with the CWPT's involvement in the casino fight. As a Civil War preservationist, I give my money to that organization to buy hallowed ground and development rights, not fight expensive legal and statistical battles with a developer who wants to put a legal business on a tract of land already zoned for heavy commercial use.

As a preservationist, I worry about any new development coming to Gettysburg; in my heart of hearts, I wouldn't mind seeing Steinwehr Avenue bulldozed to restore the real 1863 battlefield. That's not realistic, of course, and we have to be willing to weigh our economic future against preserving an idealized past.

Still, when Crossroads spoke to our editorial board a while back, LeVan couldn't persuade us we should buy his rosy economic forecasts over the gloomy scenario advanced by the No Casino folks.

We'll ask them the same question when they meet with us in the near future.

I'm still not convinced a casino would be a worse neighbor than, say, a strip mall or a new housing development. And as much as I respect and endorse No Casino's grass-roots activism, I'm not sure the opposition is based on economic reality rather than moral qualms about gambling.

Frankly, I don't care much for Crossroads chances anyway, and suspect No Casino may have already won this fight. I doubt the gaming board will brave the public outcry to award a Gettysburg license. Sure, LeVan may be a buddy of the governor, but everyone seeking a slots license has powerful friends in Harrisburg.

So just between you and me, I think I'd hold off welcoming Crossroads to the community for a while.

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