Academy Story a Stretch
I write to correct three significant errors in the article "Politics in the People's Academy" [Jan. 29, 2009] by Mark Roessler about the live screening of the presidential inauguration at the Academy of Music.
First, the article positions the event as "a self-promotion tool" for the benefit of Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins. The idea for screening the public television coverage at the Academy did originate with Mayor Higgins; however, I asked her to address the audience beforehand and introduced her after my own opening remarks. The mayor's comments in no way promoted or even mentioned her work. To suggest, as the article does, that any utterance by an elected official makes an event a "political meeting" stretches credulity.
Secondly, the article notes, "it costs a lot to heat a theater on a January day." In order to maintain the condition of the 19th-century building, the theater must be heated consistently whether or not there is an audience. The City of Northampton bore no additional costs to provide heat for the event.
Finally, you write that 100 tickets were given away before the public was allowed access to the event, an error that is reflected in the article's headline, which refers to the event as "a political party for [the mayor's] friends." With the exception of the few tickets that the Academy offered to our resident performing arts companies and longtime benefactors, the lion's share were distributed free to the public on a first-come, first-served basis at three locations prior to the event.
Please keep in mind that the Academy is happy to provide the media with information in order to ensure factual reporting.
Andrew Crystal
President, Board of Trustees
The Academy of Music Theatre
Editor responds: Andrew Crystal alleges that the article contains "three significant errors" but fails to show that there are three factual mistakes. Roessler, commenting on facts disclosed in the article, described the inaugural event as a de facto promotional event for Mayor Higgins, who, as Crystal notes, came up with the idea. Crystal's disagreement with that interpretation does not prove an error in Roessler's reporting or analysis.
Roessler and his editors stand by his reporting on the issue of ticket distribution, which is carefully laid out in the article. (The source for the advanced giveaway of 100 tickets is CBS3springfield.com, as noted in the story.) Roessler may have stumbled on the issue of heating the Academy in January as well as the cost of electricity for powering live video, but if he erred, it was in logic, not reporting. Roessler concluded that the cost of opening the doors for 800 people on a frigid January day, and powering lights and electrical appliances, is greater than the cost of keeping it closed and dark. Crystal asserts that the event didn't increase the costs of heating. We have to take his word for that.
