Wouldn't it be wonderful if the "star" reporters for the Lincoln News were to get their facts right and print the real truth rather than their version of it?

First we have two articles, both appearing in the 7/3/08 edition of the Lincoln News. In one, we have Shelley Farrington reporting that Bruce McLean as saying "the FCC has granted the station's application (MAGIC) and it should be in hand and ready to go by mid July".

Then we have Lisa Pelkey/Hayes' article which states "The FCC has accepted the filing of an applicaiton for a new radio station in the Katahdin Region" and has "given the green light to MAGIC for the operation of a new transmission tower, etc."

Great news for all the MAGIC enthusiasts? Sorry, not true.

What these reporters did was put the cart before the horse. The FCC's acceptance of the application did not, in any way, shape or form, mean that the application had been approved, but the news stories certainly read that way, didn't they?

There's that spin again, as usual.

When McLean stated that he expected to have the license in hand by mid-July, what happened? Guess what, folks; this is a much more involved process before approval is granted. The truth is that the MAGIC bloc now has three weeks to respond to all of "our" and Mr. Talbott's objections. Actually MAGIC had two weeks to respond, following a 30 day comment period, however, MAGIC/Dennis Dunbar have requested an additional week's extension. After that Talbott is allowed another week to file further objections.

The application "should" be in hand and ready to go" according to McLean. I don't think so! Here we are into August and there is still on-going communication with the FCC. I would not expect any final decision to be made until the middle of September, and possibly even later. However, it must be nice to live in a world of magical, rose-colored glasses.

Now we have a further article, published in the Lincoln News on 8/7/08, and written by Lisa Pelkey/Hayes who says that MAGIC was "given the green light for its "tower license". Pelkey/Hayes should do her homework, as there is no such thing as a "tower license"and no approval has been granted.

In addition, Pelkey/Hayes points her finger at two town officials - one from Millinocket and the other from East Millinocket. Since she would like you to believe she is on the inside of all this information, why then would she omit, or fail to report on all of the many other letters that the FCC has received that were in opposition to a MAGIC NPR station? Kind of makes you wonder about her reporting skills.

She also mentions that Bruce McLean was not available for comment. I wonder why? It's too bad she didn't consider interviewing Dave Cyr or Mark Marston, since she mentions them; but then that goes along with her biased reporting.

We in Millinocket should realize from past experience, when both these "star" reporters were writing for our local papers, that articles, when written by them, were not necessarily what they are purported to be - and this is no different - just another example of "yellow" journalism.