By STAFF REPORTS
OCEAN CITY – City Council approved a resolution slamming the Ocean City Sentinel for publishing a controversial guest column, the latest in a firestorm of criticism levied at the newspaper and the local resident who wrote the column.
Approved after a lengthy and at times emotional discussion, the resolution condemns all threats of violence, expresses disappointment and disgust at the decision to publish the columns and demands an apology from the writer and the paper.
The paper has apologized in two editorials published over two weeks. Both were signed by editor and publisher David Nahan. The guest columnist, John McCall of Ocean City, has said he would never apologize and maintains that the columns about both City Councilman Michael DeVlieger and U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew included no threats.
Many disagree. Since Van Drew went public with a recording of a call from McCall in which he states he wants Van Drew “deposed if not dead,” the subject has made national news, including segments on Fox News.
Closer to home, members of City Council lambasted the newspaper’s decision to publish the fiery opinion pieces, with members inaccurately referring to them as “articles” on several occasions. City Councilman Keith Hartzell said he did not believe the apologies published in the paper went far enough. Nahan said he also has contacted the congressman’s office to set up a time to apologize directly to him.
There was also talk of removing the Sentinel as the city’s paper of record, a function the newspaper has served for generations. That does not mean the paper in any way represents the governing body, but rather that it is where public notices are published, including budgets, pending ordinances, foreclosures and other matters.
In most instances, local governments use a newspaper with local offices.
Resident Ed Price called in to the meeting, held under social distancing guidelines at the Ocean City Music Pier, to let council members know state law requires the municipal paper of record be printed and published in New Jersey. The Ocean City Sentinel is published in Ocean City. It is currently being printed in Pennsylvania.
That night, City Council approved a resolution requiring that the paper of record meet all state requirements. Contacted after the meeting, Nahan said he was not aware of that printing requirement.
“The Ocean City Sentinel has been published in Ocean City for 139 years,” Nahan said. “It was printed on the island until 2004, when its pressmen left for better-paying positions. They did yeoman’s work keeping our old presses going for so long. Once they left, we were unable to hire new pressmen who could run that old press. We have printed with different printing companies since then, both inside and outside New Jersey, but our offices and all but the physical act of printing of the newspaper has always been done here. Our counsel is reviewing the state statute.”
Contacted for comment, an official with the New Jersey Press Association said the request would be forwarded to the organization’s executive committee for review.
Commercial printing presses have become rare, and most local publications rely on distant or even out-of-state printers.
More of the discussion March 25 focused on resolution 26, the call for an apology and condemnation of the guest columns.
DeVlieger abstained from voting on the resolution, saying he would recuse himself because he is directly involved with the controversy as one of the people mentioned in the column. But he insisted that both columns be read into the record of the meeting and commented on the issue as well, saying he knew McCall and does not understand the level of animosity expressed against him.
In the one column published online, which has since been removed from the paper’s website at Van Drew’s request, McCall calls on Van Drew and DeVlieger to leave office over their continued support for then-President Donald Trump.
“Otherwise, metaphorically at least, they must bleed,” he wrote, as was read at the meeting.
“He outlines that we’re traitors and we should be executed,” DeVlieger said. “And later insinuates the possibility of ravaging one’s home and destroying things, and that being silly, and later goes on to say we should potentially (what was that word he used?) metaphorically at least should bleed. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I expect from a publication in Ocean City. Maybe some fringe political rag somewhere, but I don’t think that’s appropriate.”
DeVlieger said he had two Trump flags and two Trump signs on his duplex. He said he respects his neighbors, citing close neighbors who are passionate supporters of President Joe Biden, and said he took his campaign signs down on Nov. 3.
Several council members said they had been contacted before the meeting by residents who wanted to see the resolution removed from the agenda, citing concerns over the erosion of freedom of the press. At the meeting, resident Donna Moore also suggested council set aside the resolution, “considering the fact that diplomatic dialogue might be better suited for this issue, rather than legislation.”
Resident Bill Hartranft went further. He agreed that the columnist went much too far, but spoke against the council vote.
“I don’t think it should be addressed publicly and I don’t think it should be part of the government maneuver. You’ve got some clown who wrote a nasty letter. Clearly the man is unhinged,” he said. “Let it go. Put your big-boy pants on and walk away from it.”
Council Chairman Bob Barr took issue with Hartranft’s statement.
“Your comments are completely reprehensible,” he said.
Other speakers at the meeting were far more critical of the paper, including Dave Breeden, who encouraged DeVlieger to vote on the measure.
Joseph Schneider asked if the city advertised in the paper and said the paper is supposed to represent the community and be down the middle.
“I’d never give another dollar. I’d look at everyone who’s advertising in the paper and I’d encourage everyone else to do the same,” he said.
“We should stand up and say something. It is wrong,” Hartzell said. “This kind of verbiage and language has no place in our town, especially from the paper of record.”
In extensive comments, Hartzell condemned the paper and the opinion pieces. He and other members focused on an element in one column that cited Trump stating “Grab ‘em by the p—-y. You can do anything.” Trump’s statement was recorded in 2005 and surfaced during the 2016 presidential campaign.
McCall suggesting testing the acceptability on Van Drew’s wife with what he called the “Republican high-five.”
Multiple council members argued that family members of officials should be left out of the public discourse.
Barr said he knows Van Drew’s wife well, stating that she had never sought to be involved in politics herself.
“I almost wish they would have come after me. I was in the White House. I was with President Trump. I shook his hand. I was there with Congressman Van Drew in the White House,” Barr said, referring to a meeting after Van Drew changed parties from Democrat to Republican.
Barr denied that the issue was political. He said Joe Biden’s sister-in-law lives in Ocean City.
“If somebody had said that about her, I’d be just as angry. Because we don’t do that here,” he said.
According to Nahan, since the story broke in national outlets, he has received multiple threats, including death threats. The impact has spilled over to other local publications which have also received threats.
“I don’t agree that we should be forcing people to make apologies. But to me, just a decent human being would make that apology,” said Councilman Tomaso Rotondi, participating in the meeting remotely on Thursday. “I do think it’s right for us as a city to condemn the actions and to condemn what was written in the paper.”
He said today people look for “microaggressions” and ways to be offended but described the columns as a violation of human rights, including fantasies about sexual assault against a private citizen.
“People say that we signed up for this, but do we really? Do we really sign up to be attacked? Not on our opinions, but personally?” said Rotondi. “I just think the article went too far… To me it’s very bizarre that we’ve gotten to this point, and I’m a big defender of free speech.”
Councilman Jody Levchuk expressed more ambivalence about the resolution, saying he could take it or leave it, but voted in favor after condemning the columns. He said he ran for council because it is a non-partisan form of government. He said he was appalled with the columns.
“I’m a big defender of freedom of speech. Most of us, if not all of us, agree there are limits to those freedoms,” he said. “Threatening the life of anyone in any way has zero place in any platform, let alone our city’s official newspaper, OK? Sexually fantasizing about a man’s wife – innocent wife – has no place on any platform, let alone the city’s official newspaper.”
Council members Peter Madden and Karen Bergman were not at the meeting.
“Cherish our moniker that we are America’s Greatest Family Resort. Because we are. And we need to live it each and every day. And we need to challenge things like this and be better about it,” Hartzell said.