Joan Whitlow’s TahoeWatch stretches into Day 14. As predicted yesterday, the “embedded” City Hall reporter finds space in this week’s column and time in her busy schedule to tail Booker’s security detail to the local car wash: The misuse of official vehicles doesn’t wash.
I understand what Joanie’s issue is with the trucks, I just don’t think it should have been the subject of an entire column, let alone two of them. We’re talking about vehicles that make up four-hundredths of a percent of the city’s municipal budget—Joanie begrudgingly adds that the city got a good price on the vehicles.
Unfortunately, the possibilities with this shtick are nearly limitless: following the mayormobile to an oil change, to the gas station, to a midnight run to Papa Johns. It could be a long summer, folks.
Is this is the best we can expect from the Ledger’s only Newark-native reporter on the payroll? One wonders what real stories are being lost to the effort spent on these “gotcha” columns. We all know that the Ledger is an award-winning paper, but why this is the level of effort they choose to expend on their hometown is just perplexing.