Style Weekly gets it mostly right but…
Greg Pearson

When you're about to write almost 2,000 words on a subject that you have little firsthand knowledge of, you need more than your opinions and a review of other newspaper stories on the subject as background. That's probably why Style Weekly and News Editor Scott Bass made several errors in a June 27 story on residential growth in Chesterfield.

Entitled "Home Invaders," its subhead read: "Chesterfield County's future won't be determined by giant developers, but by smaller pocket subdivisions lurking in the fields." Catchy headline, but the subhead is not supported within the story. It appears that is Bass's opinion - the first of several from him. Style never sends a reporter to Chesterfield's Planning Commission or Board of Supervisor meetings, so the weekly publication's expertise is from afar.

Contacted three weeks after the story appeared, Bass was surprised to find out that the Roseland project (with over 5,000 homes proposed) hadn't been reviewed by either the commission or the board. He had reported the rezoning was already approved. No one had told him of the error, but that could be because at least 75 percent of Style's circulation is outside of Chesterfield, and its readers don't usually expect this kind of reporting from the entertainment weekly.

"We're used to inaccuracies from Style," said one county leader, "so we don't bother to contact them about their mistakes."

Bass quickly posted a correction on Style's Web site but didn't say whether there would be a correction in the next printed edition. Another Web site correction said Style "incorrectly reported projected housing demand for Chesterfield County."

Style has an edgier writing style with more focus on arts, entertainment and food than on news. As alternative newspapers go - an alternative to daily papers - Style Weekly is more conservative but still with some elements of "in your face journalism" typical of alternative newspapers.

It has pledged to the Chesterfield County Circuit Court to report on Chesterfield so it can be eligible to print legal notices and collect advertising dollars from attorneys who place foreclosure notices in Style. State law requires Style to "report local current events and government meetings...and [be]…a news forum…" for Chesterfield. But Bass acknowledged to us in a phone interview that "we aren't a paper of record for Chesterfield."

Bass also wrote in the article: "Chesterfield Planning Director Kirk Turner says that with so much land already zoned for residential development years ago, his office lacks the tools to manage it effectively." Turner says he didn't say that. Over the years in our dealings with Turner, we've found him to be forthright. If he had that view, the Chesterfield Observer would have likely been the first to report it.

Bass also wrote: "All of this makes managing residential growth the county's great quagmire." Bass said the term "quagmire" wasn't a quote from someone else, adding that residential growth is the county's main issue. Does that make it a quagmire? we asked. "Well, I wrote it, and I stand behind it," he replied.

Clearly, residential growth is the county's number one issue. No news operation has reported more on that than the Chesterfield Observer. However, often heard in the context of the Vietnam War, quagmire is one of those emotional words more likely to be opinion in this context.

"Scott was new to this, and he told me Style doesn't usually do this kind of story," Rick Brindle told us. Brindle and the Greenacres rezoning was the focus of Style's story. Brindle and others organized a half a dozen communities to oppose 24 homes on 53 acres in the Matoaca District, but the residents ended up applauding the county board when the supervisors approved the rezoning after the developer made several concessions. Style has not done a follow-up story to report that happy ending.

"I had to explain the [planning] process and terminology to him," added Brindle.

In Bass's story he wrote: "…the Planning Commission voted to send [the Greenacres rezoning] to the Board of Supervisors for a final vote, despite having serious misgivings." Bass may not understand that recommendations by the planning department and the commission are part of the process before the county board makes a final determination.

Brindle liked Bass's story but questioned whether he actually said "crazy mismanagement of the county" as Bass had quoted him. "It doesn't sound much like me," he wrote in an e-mail.