As managing editor of The news media is part of the story in Westport, Conn., where a columnist from The New York Times spoke in favor of a plastic bag ban on Tuesday night -- and then said he'd write about the ban.
That's according to this story from WestportNow.com. Westport's Representative Town Meeting voted 26 to 5 (with one abstention) in favor of a ban on plastic bags after a marathon three-and-a-half-hour debate. The ordinance will become effective in six months.
According to the report, local resident David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times, "was animated in his support of the ordinance."
“Don’t let our kids and grand kids look back on us as idiots,” he said, adding, “And if you pass it, I’ll write about it in the Times.”
I don't see anything in the Times today, although Pogue did touch on the old paper vs. plastic question in a recent blog post.
I've covered a lot of city, village and town council meetings over the years, and I can tell you that it's rare to hear anyone use the word "idiots" in a public meeting. After the meeting, sure, you hear it all the time. But maybe folks in Connecticut are more direct.
Anyway, the bag ban craze has officially spread to The Nutmeg State, despite the efforts of Steve Rosario, who represented the American Chemistry Council at the meeting. Westport joins a handful of cities in California and Hawaii with bag bans on the books.