Greg Kesich, who backed the referendum as one of the paper’s editorial writers and in his signed column, said that he was unaware of the ad donation until it became a matter of public controversy. While companies have a right to use their resources in public affairs, he said, “what’s unusual is that this is a news organization, and this seems to be a break with the practice that I’m used to.” He paused. “And I think there are good reasons for the traditional practice.”
Tom Bell, a political reporter at the Press Herald who leads the paper’s union, thinks management donated the space to win favor with the local business community, not because it felt strongly about the vote.
“Nevertheless, I think it’s easy to forget that the Chamber is a political organization,” he said. And a political organization that receives free ads necessarily has an enormous advantage over those that don’t. More importantly, he worries the paper’s lack of disclosure about the donation may challenge readers’ faith in the newsroom’s impartiality.
“This makes our jobs, as journalists, harder,” said Bell. “We understand that our credibility is our bread and butter, so we’re very protective of it.”
*[Update: The print version of this column stated that Randy Billings of The Forecaster broke the story first; in fact, Al Diamon of DownEast.com and Jeff Inglis of The Portland Phoenix both wrote about it several days earlier on their respective blogs. This section has been corrected to reflect that.]
Maine is getting its fair share of criticism. Not only with the newspaper's position and the chamber of Commerce but also now the walls in the Dept. of Labor can no longer have pictures of workers--past or present without the equivalent of business near or within??? How is that much different that Mr Walker of Wisconsin insisting that all public unions lose their right to strike etc other than possibly a 2% raise if that's what inflation happens to be??
Yet little of this is mentioned any where nationally other than on Jon Stewart's or S Colbert's shows. Everyone wants to be treated fairly if it applies to them but to h>>> with anyone else's!!!?? Is that how Americans care for each other??? Roosevelt is turning in his grave and has been since Reagan dumped the union for air controllers.
#1 Posted by trish, CJR on Tue 29 Mar 2011 at 05:04 PM