Meredith Jordan’s column in the Oct. 10 Leader entirely misconstrues the source of my frustration with the Leader’s coverage of the Ethics Complaint against me, pretending that I’m upset that a complaint about me has garnered newspaper coverage.

I have not claimed that ethics complaints against the mayor aren’t newsworthy (they absolutely are!) Instead, I have been frustrated at the Leader’s failure to provide you with clarity or to be responsible with its coverage. I have been frustrated  at the Leader’s limited investigation into the claims against me and the failure to ask me basic questions about the facts  of the case. I have been frustrated that the Leader has not given you relevant context about a complainant who has a  notable and storied history of obsessive trolling behavior and conspiracy-theory laden tirades against a wide range of people she perceives to be her enemies that has landed her in the pages of the New York Times and on Wikipedia. As a result, I have been frustrated by the Leader’s choice to run loud, sensationalist headlines above the fold on the front page whenever a minor procedural blip occurs.

Are you, the reader, aware that the Hearing Examiner has yet to make a single factual determination regarding the two  remaining complaints against me? My sense is that the coverage has not given you that context (or perhaps only gave you that context in last week’s paper, at long last). My sense is that the Leader has been more interested in drumming up controversy than helping you to understand. My sense is that the Leader has undermined public trust in pursuit of engagement. My sense is that this is a pattern of behavior that hurts our community.

David Faber

Port Townsend