One could hardly recognize the Port Hope in evidence over the past weekend as the same community that has been smeared, besmirched and repeatedly bashed by some of its own residents over the past few weeks.

As the annual Santa Claus parade (one of the biggest and best we can ever remember in the community) took to the streets, following the Candlelight Walk and the lighting of Memorial Park, as well as the delightful new tradition of the Capitol Christmas, the sick image painted of the town was nowhere in evidence.

As it it weren't damaging enough to hold a press conference on a health study that purports to show the health of the community is endangered by the local nuclear industry - without producing the study - the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee chose to release its findings in Toronto, rather than here where any affected people live. That says a lot.

Then, a public meeting to reveal the study to the Port Hope public was cancelled and, to add insult to injury, the perpetrators of this mess had the temerity to suggest the meeting had to be cancelled because Port Hopers were such a bunch of hotheads, committee members, sponsors, etc. feared for their safety!

It's been a day or two since Port Hope held lynchings in Memorial Park, and besides, right now, all the trees with good, strong limbs are all tangled up with Christmas lights.

Still, there are those heritage lampposts ...

Something must be said, too, for our own profession-journalism. Sad to say, it seems anyone can come forward with any half-baked evidence and if the story sounds sexy enough, it will get coverage.

Did anyone (including the journalist who wrote the press release) bother to demand to see the actual study? Did anyone ask for reports from peer reviews? In short, were any of the normal journalistic checks and balances applied to this story - that four of nine at-risk people tested displayed a "high" level of uranium in their urine? What is a high level? No comparisons were given in any stories we saw.

Maybe that's why the study was not released in Port Hope. We, of the local press, would certainly have asked those all-important questions.