Their silence won’t silence us

Three of Riverdale’s “Big Four” — Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, state Sen. Jeff Klein and Rep. Eliot Engel — have all stopped taking questions from The Riverdale Press. 

And when reporters from The Riverdale Press and the Norwood News stopped into his Albany office a few weeks ago, Mr. Klein literally ran away to hide behind a locked door, leaving only a spokesman in his dust.  

The reason for the cold shoulder is pretty easy to pin down. But it’s time for these public servants to step up and start communicating with their constituents. 

Instead, they are trying their best to shield themselves from scrutiny by freezing out a local newspaper that is doing its job — asking tough questions. 

• In December, The Press published “Klein says he’ll give up convict donor cash” after we unveiled he was taking large sums of money from a former mobster. Mr. Klein gave the $27,000 to charity, after an unsuccessful attempt to get a third party to delay our printing of the story.

• In February and March, The Press published a series of stories on courthouse patronage that was reported in conjunction with a CUNY Graduate School of Journalism team headed by veteran investigative reporter Tom Robbins. The four-part series looked into court appointments handed down by judges to politicians, including Mr. Dinowitz and Mr. Klein.

• Earlier the same month, The Press published an editorial critical of Mr. Engel’s notoriety for securing an aisle seat at the State of the Union address.

But the strong-arming had begun even before those pointed critiques were printed. 

As early as last year, Mr. Dinowitz and Mr. Engel were complaining about editorials like “Cheering for Choices,” which applauded competitive elections. 

But nobody  — neither then nor now — has complained about the accuracy of our reporting. 

Politicians of every stripe have long endured the spotlight The Press shines on them and since its founding by David A. Stein it has resisted joining any political camp.