Unhappy with coverage of Senate race | Letter
Letter to Editor Highlights Concerns Over Press Herald’s Coverage of 2026 Senate Race
Portland, Maine – In a letter posted to the online edition of the Press Herald on August 16, 2026, Portland resident Sarah English expressed frustration with how the newspaper has reported on the 2026 U.S. Senate race in Maine. The letter, which was published in the “Letters to the Editor” section of the Sunday paper, takes aim at two separate pieces of coverage that the writer believes misrepresented facts and contributed to a charged political climate.
Headlines in Question
On Saturday, August 15, the Press Herald front page carried a headline that read: “Collins criticizes Trump administration plan to buy shock gloves for ICE agents.” According to English, the headline mischaracterized the nature of the story. She argued that a more accurate title would have been “Trump administration plans to buy shock gloves for ICE agents, courtesy of Collins’ vote to fund ICE with billions in taxpayer money.” The letter notes that the headline focused on Sen. Susan Collins’ criticism of the plan without acknowledging that Collins had previously voted to fund the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Opinion Piece on Troy Jackson
The following day, the Sunday’s opinion section featured a piece by a local attorney titled “Genocide canard is a smokescreen for antisemitism.” The article accused Sen. Troy Jackson – the Democratic challenger in the 2026 race – of antisemitism for acknowledging that the killing of Palestinians is genocide. English pointed out that the piece, according to the author, was “misguided and offensive.” She further noted that the article claimed more than 70,000 Palestinians had been killed since October 2023, a figure she described as a “very conservative estimate.”
The letter identifies the author of the opinion piece as a “shrinking number of Jewish people who might identify as PEP (Progressive Except for Palestine),” a label the writer uses to describe a subset of Jewish voters who hold progressive views but oppose Palestinian self‑determination. English said that many Jewish Mainers, including herself, “appreciate Jackson for calling it what it is” and that she “will enthusiastically vote for Troy Jackson for U.S. Senate in November.”
Impact on Reader Trust
English concluded that the two pieces of coverage eroded her trust in the Press Herald’s ability to report on the Senate race with minimal bias. “I’m losing any trust I may have had in this publication’s ability to provide coverage of the U.S. Senate race in Maine with minimal bias,” she wrote.
The letter is part of the Press Herald’s broader “Maine Matters 2026” coverage, which includes a “Maine Political Report” newsletter and a text‑message alert system for election updates. The letter itself is tagged with the article categories “election 2026,” “letter to the editor,” and “senate 2026.”
English’s letter illustrates the heightened scrutiny of media coverage during the 2026 campaign season and reflects concerns among some readers about how political reporting can shape perceptions of candidates and policy issues.
