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In the business of covering local news, you have to make judgment calls on a daily basis about what is news and what isn’t. I guess that holds true for all journalism, but I think it’s harder for us in so-called hyperlocal news. News judgment requires discerning the difference between legitimate news and rumor, innuendo and gossip. And sometimes the decision is not as easy or as clear-cut as you might think.

Let me say up front: I don’t report gossip. I verify. I corroborate. I avoid relying on unnamed “sources” for key facts. When in doubt, I re-read the journalism code of ethics. I bounce things off other journalists I respect, particularly colleagues working in other communities who don’t know the individual characters involved. Call me old-fashioned. But this is how I work.

Such was the case a couple of months ago when the phone lines in Riverhead were so hot with gossip about what happened one night, they practically melted. The calls came in fast and furious. Anthony Coates — political adviser to the town supervisor and a member of the Riverhead Business Improvement District board of directors — allegedly intoxicated, had collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. The rumor mill was more than busy that day, and all the usual suspects spent the day clucking and jabbering, on the one hand feigning concern, and on the other, quite obviously delighting in the juicy gossip about a man’s misfortune.

I say “all the usual suspects” because that’s exactly what they are. On all topics related to local politics, there’s a faithful knot of ne’er-do-wells who spend way too much of their time stirring the pot, spreading rumors, talking about each other and stabbing one another in the back.

That morning, I verified Coates was in the hospital. I was not able to verify the malady that sent him there. But I didn’t find it hard to believe it was related to alcohol. I had seen him in action at the bar. I knew he had a prior DWI conviction from several years ago, reported 

Was this news? Or was this gossip? Political ally and adviser to the supervisor has a drinking problem. My call: gossip.

Then I heard (and verified) there was an intervention and Coates had agreed to go to a rehab facility upstate. And he went. For several weeks. News? Again, I decided not. I believe there is some expectation of privacy left in this world, even when you’re involved in local politics in a small town.

I also heard (and verified) that friends of Coates were collecting money to pay for the rehab, which wasn’t covered by insurance. The supervisor, a lawyer, was acting as escrow agent, holding the donations in his attorney escrow account. He had a written agreement to be signed by donors regarding his role as escrow agent for the fund. Angela DeVito, Jamesport resident, former school board president and one-time candidate for Town Board, was soliciting the donations.

I still didn’t think this was news. I didn’t publish it. I didn’t gossip about it. What I did instead was pray for the guy. Alcoholism is a horrible affliction. His life was at stake. I hoped he’d be able to recover.

After he returned, the supervisor made a decision I still don’t understand: He offered Coates up as an appointee to a new position of lobbyist/marketer for the Calverton Enterprise Park. From a political standpoint, I thought it was dopey, on a number of levels, especially because the supervisor lacked the three votes needed to appoint him. I reported on it, of course, but I didn’t bring Coates’ recent rehab into the story. I still honestly did not see its relevance.

The gossip network is currently busy with tales about how developers with pending applications contributed to Coates’ rehab cost in order to curry favor with the town, presumably in the hopes of getting their projects approved. In an interview with Coates the other day, I questioned him about it. He scoffed at that idea. It wasn’t true, he said. And besides, “If I can’t even get three votes to appoint me to a one-year job how is paying for my rehab going to do anybody any good with this Town Board?” A fair question.

Local politics is a nasty game. Coates knows this. He’s played it. If he were surprised by the reaction of the gossip network to his nomination for a town job, he’d be naive — and he’s not.

Anthony Coates is an enigma. He’s an enigma I’ve written about in the past. He’s an enigma who’s now a recovering alcoholic, and for that I say, bully for him.

But what about the supervisor? Is Sean Walter naive for nominating his friend for the job? Or just, as his critics say, so arrogant and brazen that he is prone to doing stupid things? I’m not sure. Either way, he gave the gossip network and his political enemies a lot to talk about this month.

And now, a word to the wags in that gossip network (you know who you are):

Be glad I don’t run with gossip. Because people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

There are plenty of torrid tales to be told of the drunken debauchery of current and past elected officials, their cronies and strange bedfellows (sometimes quite literally) and the rest of the self-important windbags in this town. Alcoholism, drug abuse, extramarital affairs, gambling addictions, bankruptcies, criminal convictions…

Meet Riverhead’s power elite.

Maybe someday I’ll write that book. But for now, I’ll stick to community journalism.

Denise Civiletti, reporter, editor, digital maven and former newspaper editor and publisher, lives and works in Riverhead. She vaguely remembers having a life away from electronic gadgets before being consumed by her role as a digital-hyperlocal-news-entrepreneur-pioneer publishing RiverheadLocal.com with her husband Peter Blasl.