The April 6 front-page story about the Republicans opening a Portland multicultural center was excellent, except for two things.
Paul LePage greets Biddeford resident Jocelyne Ininahazwe, originally from Burundi, on Tuesday at the grand opening of the Maine Republican Party’s multicultural center in Portland. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
The main headline was perfect (“GOP opens multicultural center; LePage courts votes”), but the secondary headline (“Critics of Maine’s former Republican governor warn his inclusive tone on immigration ignores his past hostility”) was not supported in the text of the story, except by one quote, from the chairman of the Maine Democratic Party. No quotes from other critics. Shocking, right?
The second thing was pulling up LePage quotes from the past, with no context. Yes, I remember Paul LePage told the Portland NAACP “kiss my butt” when he was in office because he had been attending Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfasts in his hometown for years and he planned to continue doing so. When he talked about immigrants as “the enemy,” he was talking about immigrants who were drug dealers.
Overall, though, it was a good story, especially the quote from Aqeel Mohialdeen, the center’s vice chairman, who said, “I come from Iraq, where the government controls every part of your life. … I came to America to be free of all that.”
Paula McKenney
Woolwich
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