Sometimes it seems people don’t want to acknowledge the obvious.

I got a call from a reader who was upset because we have run a number of pictures and/or stories about Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township.

She said The Oakland Press favors Peters and is constantly trying to get him publicity. Unfortunately, she also said she didn’t like the representative and the publicity he received from us so she was canceling her paper.

The call was left on my voice mail and she did not leave a name or phone number — she obviously didn’t want to discuss the issue.

I would have told her that it is her option to cancel her subscription but that she was not correct in saying we are constantly trying to make Peters look good.
Yes, we endorsed him in last November’s election but it is not our goal to make he gets positive press.

However, it is The Oakland Press’ responsibility to report news events, some more significant than others.

Some people seem to forget that after the election, Peters represents all of his district’s residents, not just the Democrats, although I realize many Republicans would like to disown him.

However, the bottom line is that Peters is the 9th district’s representative in Congress and as such, what he does can be news. We don’t publish everything that his public relations staff sends us but sometimes there are items that warrant placement somewhere in the newspaper. For example, when he gives out an award or passes on a federal grant to a local group or business. It’s news. It’s not necessarily worthy of the front page but it warrants some mention somewhere — and that occasionally means running his picture, too.

What needs to be stressed is that we are not running any news items for Peters that we haven’t run for past congressmen, whether Democrats or Republicans.

We are merely covering the office — not necessarily the individual.