LNP denies trying to ‘water down’ or ‘silence’ Smucker op-ed, despite wanting to ‘qualify’ it

According to a May 9 editorial in LNP|Lancaster Online, “It’s been a devastating and frightening year, to say the least, for transgender people.” Two months later, occupational therapist Aimee Ketchum reacted to President Donald Trump signing the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act by writing in LNP, “Devastating cuts to safety-net programs will pose significant risks for children’s health, development, education, and future success.”

Follow closely enough and “devastating” things done by Republicans or bewailed by progressives almost feel like a running theme in LNP. 

In January, the newspaper’s editorial board approvingly quoted Pequea Township resident Peggy Schooling thus: Eliminating the Education Department “may sound like a way to reduce federal bureaucracy, but, in reality, such a decision could have devastating consequences for students in Lancaster County and across the country.” And YWCA Lancaster’s communications director Demetrius Archer lamented in an op-ed the following month, “Many institutions and corporations are beginning to quietly withdraw their commitments to [racial] equity in the arts. The pushback is real, and its effects could be devastating.”

But when U.S. Representative Lloyd Smucker (R-11) submitted a guest column on July 16 suggesting the OBBB “takes bold, pro-growth steps to help families recover after four devastating [Biden administration] years,” LNP’s opinion staff thought he crossed a line. 

Opinion editor Suzanne Cassidy objected to that and other phrasing in the congressman’s op-ed draft, as she recounted in an August 3 commentary. She responded to his submission with a revised version, calling the Biden years “challenging” rather than “devastating” and making other changes. She told Smucker’s staff to “take it or leave it.” 

The congressman decided to “leave it,” tell constituents about the exchange in his e-newsletter, and link that message to a page on his website featuring his original article. The Independence and its parent site Broad + Liberty published the op-ed last Monday. 

“With so much about the legislation being misrepresented by local media organizations and other local elected officials, I wanted to speak the truth about the [One Big Beautiful] bill,” Smucker wrote to constituents. “Sadly, LNP|LancasterOnline chose instead to silence my voice. Gatekeeping like this done by media organizations is antithetical to the role of a free press in our society and public discourse suffers as a result.”

Cassidy did not reply to an email requesting comment on Tuesday; the editor’s staff cited time constraints after The Independence followed up Friday morning. In her published response to Smucker, she wrote that she “suggested” replacing “challenging” with “devastating” and made “other edits includ[ing] adding words such as ‘some’ and ‘new’ to qualify some of Smucker’s claims about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and replacing ‘will’ with ‘should,’ because as far as I know, Smucker cannot predict the future.” 

(Recall, LNP permitted Ketchum to predict in her guest column what the not-yet-implemented OBBB “will” do to children.)Elsewhere in Cassidy’s piece, she averred her edits “did not, as [Smucker] asserted in a recent email to constituents, water down or distort his message,” not quite clarifying how she distinguishes between “watering down” a message and “qualifying” claims.

According to Smucker spokesperson Eric Reath, another disagreement between the paper and the lawmaker concerned Cassidy insisting on inserting “I believe” into a statement about adjustments to Medicaid and SNAP (i.e., food stamps). Therein, Smucker disputed State Representative Izzy Smith-Wade-El’s (D-Lancaster) anticipation that the reforms would cause “thousands and thousands of deaths in this country.” Reath said congressional staff provided evidence against Smith-Wade-El’s assertion but didn’t get Cassidy to budge.

“The editing process of this piece was disappointing but unsurprising, given the opinion editors’ obvious liberal leanings and disregard for conservative perspectives,” Reath said. 

Many news analysts, like Curtis Houck, managing editor of NewsBusters at the Herndon, Virginia-based Media Research Center which is dedicated to exposing left-wing media bias, have observed that disregard in many publications. A Lancaster native and “lifelong reader of LNP,” Houck echoed Reath’s sentiment about how much of it can be seen in that paper.

“Now owned by the local PBS/NPR affiliate, it’s a far-left propaganda tool,” he told The Independence. “LNP has held deep-seated problems with Smucker since he joined Congress, most notably because he hasn’t caved to their demands for in-person town halls. As we’ve seen across the country for at least fifteen years, town halls have become chaotic, raucous affairs dominated by partisans from the opposing party.”

The public radio and television broadcaster WITF’s ownership of LNP hasn’t likely kindled much affection between the paper and the congressman. He recently voted for legislation to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which subsidized public media. The bill eventually passed the Senate as well and Trump signed it.While dialogue between Cassidy and the congressman’s staff ended without his piece appearing in LNP, she called her “take it or leave it” ultimatum a “mistake” that she made because “time was tight,” despite hoping to “negotiate areas of disagreement.” Her avowed regret notwithstanding, Reath said she held firm to her demand throughout their discussions. 

“She did not rescind her ultimatum,” he said. “Her edits were presented as ‘take it or leave it,’ leaving no opportunity for our office to have Representative Smucker’s column published as originally intended.”

Cassidy’s column described her quarrels with Smucker’s verbiage as an attempt to make his work accurate, not to censor it. She argued the submission would have been “poorly fact-checked” if left unrevised.

“My aim was certainly not to silence Smucker, as he now complains,” she wrote. “It was to make sure his column was entirely factual and comprehensible.”

Yet some of the editor’s own statements warrant “fact checking” too. In attempting to disprove the congressman’s assurance that OBBB “protects vital programs such as Medicaid” she wrote that “in fact, it cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid” over a ten-year period. But even factoring in OBBB, Medicaid spending remains on track to grow from $618 billion in the last fiscal year to $807 billion in 2034, a 31% increase, per an analysis by the Arlington, Virginia-based Economic Policy Information Center. 

“[Cassidy’s] attempts at fact-checking on Medicaid and food stamps were poking the bear,” Houck said. “The congressman was correct about protecting programs for those that need it and accurate coverage of the bill would denote it includes numerous exemptions, including for the elderly, those unable to work, or currently pursuing an education. Cassidy’s fear-mongering on the issue further belied both her personal views and the paper’s track record smearing the legislation in the lead-up to its passage.”The LNP editor also thought describing the Biden economy as “devastating” was “hyperbole” because it “does not precisely describe a period in which, yes, inflation was high, but unemployment was low and the U.S. economic recovery from the pandemic outpaced that of other advanced nations, according to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and other neutral sources.”

The Biden-era inflation she deemed so unremarkable was 4.95% on average, year over year, the worst since the Carter administration four decades prior. 

While several residents wrote letters to the editor of LNP siding with Cassidy, a few supported Smucker. Numerous others, Reath said, expressed their displeasure with the publication to the congressman’s office.

“Many constituents who received Representative Smucker’s email about the column replied, ‘That’s why we canceled our subscription to LNP|LancasterOnline years ago,’” he said. “It is clear to residents of PA-11 LNP|LancasterOnline is out of touch with the community it serves.”

Reath said the congressman, who represents parts of York County as well as Lancaster County, doesn’t think hostility from a newspaper in his district will compromise his ability to share his priorities and discuss his actions with constituents.

“Rep. Smucker will continue to communicate directly with the people of Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District,” Reath said. “Whether it’s through social media, emails, newsletters, telephone town halls, or in-person meetings, he will continue sharing the truth about what’s happening in Washington and how it affects our communities. Representative Smucker will not back down and will not be silenced by editorial gatekeeping.”

Bradley Vasoli is the senior editor of The Independence.