City Puts Out Lansdowne Trash Late Friday

Published 10/11/2025 · Updated 10/11/2025

Announcing all the vital Lansdowne meetings in a press release late Friday afternoon is a classic case of the Sutcliffe city administration putting out the trash to avoid big media coverage.

Few, if any, issues are as controversial as Lansdowne and the Sutcliffe team wants Lansdowne to pass quickly and quietly.

And it worked. The major news operations did not run the story of special meetings on Lansdowne as the issue comes to its conclusion in early November. Years ago that ploy would not be successful but with diminished media resources, it apparently is effective.

This release is especially problematic in that it is the Friday before the last nice holiday weekend of the year. Consumers of journalism are busy with Thanksgiving preparations.

Putting out the trash is a time-honoured tradition of releasing controversial information or bad news when it is unlikely to be well-read or covered by the media … such as late on Friday afternoon before the Thanksgiving long weekend.

Releasing the Lansdowne notice at 4:15 p.m. on Friday shows just how important and concerned the Sutcliffe administration is about the vote which is believed to be very close at present. The major local television newscasts have already gone on the air by 4:15 p.m. so they missed the very important announcement

And that this move was successful speaks loudly about the state of current local journalism and the pressing need for more reporters covering city hall.

Ken Gray