YMCA ramblings

There seems to be a bit of spin going on out there in regard to an article in last Wednesday's CN about the Blytheville Family YMCA.

In the article, we reported on a meeting held Tuesday, in which YMCA boosters appeared before a joint meeting of the city of Blytheville's Parks and Recreation and Finance committees in an effort to secure funding from the city. There are questions as to what the city obligated itself to. Y boosters say the facility was promised $30K a year for three years; city officials say nothing was ever promised. While who-said-what-to-whom-and-when remains in question, what's not in doubt was the overall theme of Tuesday's meeting: That without the $90K from the city of Blytheville, the Y's future in Blytheville is precarious.

And that's what the story said. And there's been no complaints about it. In fact, several folks have gone out of their way to note that the story — written by Managing Editor Mark Brasfield — was right on the money.

What's being attacked, is the headline: "Y may pull out without city cash."

On several fronts, ranging from community chatter to a letter to the editor, it's been suggested that the headline is somehow "misleading." And while that charge has been thrown out on numerous occasions, we have yet to hear a reasoned explanation of what, exactly, is "misleading" about it. Indeed, the headline seems to follow the crux of the article — that the YMCA was counting on the money from the city; and without it, it faces an unknown future.

The folks who have taken over the Y have done a bang-up job getting this thing off the ground. And that goes for everyone from the officials from Memphis, who have shown they actually know something about running a YMCA, to the local boosters, who have made it all happen. And no one can blame them for wanting to look on the sunny side of things. But if there's a financial issue like the one described in last week's committee meeting, the public has a right to know about it, and our readers have a right to headlines that reflect the true nature of the situation. Sugar-coating the news with pleasant-sounding headlines isn't helpful to anybody.