In the November 12 Observer, there appeared an article written by an anonymous Associated Press writer praising the recent name change election stating “On Tuesday, the place nearly everyone has referred to as Toms River will officially become Toms River, a name change approved by a 2-1 ratio in last week's election.” Maybe the writer of this letter needs to revisit third grade mathematics class because 39% does not equal one third but is more like four tenths. Maybe this little spin might exemplify the writers bias on the subject which I believe is typical of the type of media bias most of the local media enacted leading up to the election which I believe affected the turnout.
   Even though there were plenty of citizen letters to the editor opposing the name change, and I did have the opportunity to debate the issue on the Bob Levy Topic A radio show, it is my belief that the majority of news articles were slanted towards the name change, maybe not intentionally, but at least showing an unconscious bias and sloppy reporting. In almost every article written by the press, the Mayor, Chamber of Commerce officers, Toms River BID and Name Change Committee members were given carte blanche in telling their side of the story. In many of the articles, the opinions of name change opponents were not printed or sought out. In the few articles that did give some attention to opponents, name change proponents were always printed first and opposing views often were limited to a couple of sentences to paragraphs at the end of the article.