Show of American muscle convenes at Millerton’s restored Mobil station
Front and center, a 1958 Chevy coupe with plenty of steel and chrome to go around.
Photo by Aly Morrissey
Alan Benson of Pine Plains shows off his 1961 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe.Photo by Aly Morrissey
Cars filled the parking lot of the Mobil gas station on Route 44 and spilled into the adjoining property Friday, June 20.Photo by Aly Morrissey
Latest News
What’s journalism — and what’s not
Sep 10, 2025
We know that our community values its journalism. The generous contributions from readers and the steady support from our advertisers is evidence that you value the job we do in providing a weekly report on the goings and comings in your towns and in the region. But how about the larger world of American news consumers? A recent study by the Pew Research Center on “How Americans View Journalists in the Digital Age” reveals that most us put value on the role of journalists in society, even as they see their influence declining.
The study also explores the mixed views of Americans when it comes to the various types of content that journalists provide. Respondents in the study are either unsure about or actually don’t think that someone who compiles and shares someone else’s reporting, or offers opinions or commentary should be called a journalist. Someone who conducts his or her own reporting would be — yes — a journalist. The highest certainty about who Americans qualify to be journalists falls to anyone who writes for a newspaper, followed by television and radio reporters, including radio news show hosts. Newsletters, podcasts and social media posts largely fall into a “not-journalism” category. However, the study also found perceptions differed by age group. Four in ten adults aged 18 to 29 said that “someone who posts about news on social media is a journalist,” while in the ‘65-and-up’ group, only 14% considered social media posts as the work of a journalist.
Americans are most likely to see journalists as those who conduct their own reporting. The staff at The Millerton News and The Lakeville Journal produce original content. We are present at meetings, events, community fairs, sporting events and elsewhere in the community to report what we see and hear. We are journalists producing our own content.
In what might be a commentary on today’s world, the study found that 59% of Americans say journalists are “extremely” or “very important” to the well-being of society. But 49% also say journalists are losing their influence. In past surveys by Pew, journalists have been less trusted to act in the best interest of the public than other institutions and professions, including the military, scientists and police officers.
When it comes to what Americans want from their news providers: Honesty, intelligence and authenticity top the list. And those attributes are followed by kindness — meaning that it’s important to Americans at large that the people who provide their news display kindness. Americans care far less about wanting humor, charisma or popularity from their news sources.
In today’s polarized society, it is encouraging to see that Pew found three-quarters of Americans believe that journalists should report both sides of an issue or event, giving all sides equal coverage. That’s also in line with the perspective of U.S. journalists themselves, according to an earlier Pew survey.
What do you think?
How do you view journalism in the digital age? Who counts as a journalist? What matters most to you from a journalist? Do you agree that both sides of an issue deserve equal coverage?
Let us know by sending an email to: publisher@millertonnews.com
(To read the full Pew report, go to: pewrsr.ch/4fDZmnl)
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Borden ends bottling with layoffs; Rudd Pond swim meet; Amenia orphans stranded in Boston
Sep 10, 2025
The following excerpts from The Millerton News were compiled by Kathleen Spahn and Rhiannon Leo-Jameson of the North East-Millerton Library.
September 6, 1934
‘Borden’s Ends Bottling Operation Here; Ignore Offers To Co-operate’; The Borden’s Farm Products Company, Inc., ceased the bottling operation at its Millerton plant Tuesday with a resultant lay-off of twenty-one men “in order to effect economic retrenchments,” in the words of Francis R. Elliott, assistant to the president of the corporation, “made necessary by the peculiar and distressing conditions in which the industry finds itself.” At the same time denying that they were guilty of hasty deliberation, officials of the Borden’s Company followed out the high handed policy which they have pursued throughout the controversy over the local plant, bluntly refusing offers of village officials and the Chamber of Commerce to co-operate in working out a more suitable plan for the station.
‘Lee Miller Winner At Rudd Pond’; Lee Miller, of Millerton, won the junior boys’ fifty-yard free style swimming race and placed second in the fifty-yard breast stroke event in the annual water carnival conducted Sunday at Rudd Pond by the Taconic State Park Commission. Charlotte Manning, also of Millerton, placed third in the women’s fifty-yard swim, while in the Junior boys’ division W. Kelly, of Copake Falls, placed second in the fifty-yard breast stroke and D. Matych, of Copake Falls, was third. Henry Idema, Beacon swimming star, won the point trophy, taking first place in two events and third in another.
‘Amenia Orphans Held By Police’; Two orphans whose adopted home is in Amenia were held by Boston police early this week awaiting the arrival of their aunt and guardian, Dorothy Smith, who left immediately for the Massachusetts city after receiving word by telephone from the pair at the termination of an automobile tour of New England. The children, Thomas J. Smith, 17, and Marian, 13. left the Smith home with one of the family cars a few days ago, but were forced to telephone their aunt from Boston when they ran short of funds.
The aunt ordered them to go to one of Boston’s best hotels, and at the same time requested the police to hold the children until her arrival.
‘Attendance records broken at County Fair’; Dutchess County Fair officials announced last week-end as the nintieth [sic] annual fair was drawing to an end that attendance records established in 1933, the highest previous attendance marks in the history of the fair, had been broken this year. The total attendance for the week was reported to be in excess of 34,000, and it was indicated that the fair was a financial success.
‘Art Feud Bursts Forth Anew: Wilson Appeals For “More Generous Public”’; The Lime Rock art feud, in which Winslow Wilson, Texas portrait painter, and G. Glenn Newell, Dover Plains artist, are the principals, has burst forth with renewed vigor as a result of the reported $100,000 slander action which Mr. Wilson disclosed exclusively in last week’s issue of The News he was bringing against the sixty-two-year-old painter of pastoral scenes. Mr. Wilson, who revealed last week that he was suing Mr. Newell for libel because of remarks he alleges the latter made in the presence of Mr. Wilson’s prospective clients in the Lime Rock art gallery, now appeals through the columns of The News for the privilege of exhibiting his painting, “The Morn Children,” in “any city, town or village in the United States that will give his picture a “fair showing.”
September 4, 1975
‘Renovations Delayed At Grade Schools’; Progress on construction and renovation work in the Millerton and Amenia Elementary Schools has been slowed down in recent weeks by a delay in the delivery of materials.
The $280,309 worth of work was approved by Webutuck District voters in a bond issue presented in the 1973-74 school elections.
September 7, 2000
‘West Nile Virus: More Infected Birds Found’; POUGHKEEPSIE— The Dutchess County Department of Health has learned of two additional dead birds that have tested positive for West Nile virus. One was found in Beacon July 28 and the other in East Fishkill Aug, 15. This brings the total number of positive birds to 10.
“Combating the West Nile virus takes a cooperative effort between the public and private sector,” stated Dr. Michael C. Caldwell, commissioner of Health for Dutchess County. Data received by the Dutchess County Department of Health indicates that residents need to increase their efforts in reducing the mosquito population.
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Call to elect Kara Gerry to County judge seat
I urge voters to elect Kara Gerry Dutchess County Court Judge. Kara’s career — as both a prosecutor and a defense lawyer — makes her particularly well-suited to this position. The fact that she has worked on both sides of the criminal justice system gives her a clear and thorough appreciation of fairness and practicality in criminal cases. As Kara has said, “[a]s both a prosecutor and a defense attorney, I’ve witnessed the devastating impact of crime and the critical importance of fairness and respecting constitutional rights in our courts.”
Kara’s opponent, current Dutchess County Judge Edward T. McLoughlin, whose prior experience has been only as a prosecutor, clearly lacks the ability and thoughtfulness to handle criminal cases responsibly. In a case involving the sentencing of a woman who killed her horrifically abusive partner, an appellate court found that Judge McLoughlin used incorrect “methodology, approach and application” of a statute that was intended to take the abuse of the woman into consideration when sentencing her for a crime against her domestic partner.
Nicole Addimando, who had no criminal history, shot and killed her domestic partner after he threatened to kill her, capping years of documented extreme physical and sexual abuse that included rape, strangulation, repeated beatings and burns to her breasts and genitals (Ms. Addimando’s midwife testified that on the three times that she examined her she had a “hard time looking” at Ms. Addimando’s injuries). Despite compelling evidence of the abuse, Judge McLoughlin, shockingly, found an ”undetermined abusive history” — a finding that the appellate court soundly rejected. The appellate court also rejected Judge McLauglin’s finding that Ms. Addimando could have defended herself by simply leaving the apartment. The appellate court noted that such thinking was based on “antiquated impressions of how domestic violence survivors should behave” and that Judge McLoughlin’s approach “simply runs afoul of the spirit and intent of the statute” that was intended to prevent harsh punishment of women who commit crimes against their abusers.
Judge McLoughlin sentenced Ms. Addimando to 19 years to life in prison, a sentence that the appellate court found “frustrate[d] that legislative intent by applying outdated notions regarding domestic violence issues.” The appellate court reduced the sentence to 7 ½ years.
In violating the sentencing statute, Judge McLoughlin demonstrated not only a misunderstanding of the law, but an unrealistic and callous attitude toward an abused woman.
It is time for Judge McLoughlin to lose his judgeship and make way for Kara Gerry, whose work as an Assistant District Attorney and as a Public Defender gives her the breadth of perspective we need in our judges.
Amy Rothstein
Pine Plains
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