"The standards in the public arena are higher than anywhere else," said Edward N. Cyr, who served on the city council from 1990 to 1994. "I think he has to be more cooperative with the press in attempting to deal with these questions."

Other city officials, however, charge the papers with jumping to conclusions far too quickly.

"The press has an obligation not to make assumptions and assertions without damn good evidence," said Councillor Alice K. Wolf, Reeves' predecessor as mayor.

The Race Card

Even more riling than the charges of media sensationalism, however, is the issue of racism.

And it is that issue which has hit a raw nerve in the psyches of many Cantabrigians, who say they are fed up with a largely white press out on a witchhunt for minority leaders.

"If you are a Black male, there must be something the matter," Reeves said in an interview at his City Hall office Monday night.

Van Le '89, a second-year law student at Northeastern University and former aide to Reeves, characterized the Chronicle story as a reporter's vendetta. "Now comes along a very aggressive, a white male reporter who has some agenda," he said at the Monday meeting, to loud cheers from the public gallery.

Sylvia J. Saavedra-Keber, chair of the city's Commission for Latino Affairs and one of the rally organizers, said the media has failed to reflect the diversity of the city's population, and is out of touch with the concerns of people of color.

"How many Black members do they have on their staff?" she asked Monday. "How many Asians?"

"If [minorities] were on their staffs, they would understand," she added.

Some of Reeves' supporters contend the media places an intense spotlight on minority leaders that white politicians simply don't get.

"I never saw another mayor's expenses scrutinized like Mayor Reeves," John R. Clifford, one of the rally organizers, said Monday.

At least one councillor concurred.

"The scrutiny that is now given to this has not been given to people in the past," Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55 said last night. "There is some basis in the minority community's feeling that a different standard is being applied."