Conflict at T&G? Message board poster reports on complaints against message board
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
This morning, Karen Nugent of the Telegram and Gazette reported on a complaint lodged by a group of citizens--including two selectmen--against the webmaster and members of the clintonmass.us message board, alleging that the members have threatened and intimidated citizens opposed to the rifle range on the Lancaster-Clinton line.
There is one significant problem with the article: no where does Nugent mention that she is also a member of the message board, having logged 59 posts at the site and posting a comment as recently as November 7.
Without commenting on the issue (OK, one small comment...while I do not condone the attacks I have read at that site, the prospect that someone would be investigated based on anonymous message board posts is chilling), there are a couple of questions that need to be answered:
Did Karen Nugent inform her editors before reporting the story that she is a member of the site that is being investigated by the DA and the Attorney General?
If not, did she have a duty to disclose that to her editors?
If so, should her editors have kept her on the story, despite the appearance of a conflict of interest?
And then, should they have included a disclaimer that the reporter was a member of the site being investigated?
I am not suggesting that Karen Nugent reported the story poorly, or even that she has engaged in the specific discussions that the folks who lodged the complaint found so offensive. But I do think she and the Telegram have an obligation to either steer the story to a reporter not affiliated with the site, or at the least to disclose in her reporting that she is a member of the message board.
Five years ago, Kilbourn Hill--a perfectly good hill--became Dexter Drumlin. The Trustees of Reservations decided that after decades (centuries, perhaps) of just being a hill, the place where Lancastrians go to sled, walk, jog, watch the sun rise and set, and just generally be was now a drumlin.
Did it graduate? Earn a higher rank? Achieve a new social status? Has the word "hill" become offensive to some group? Who changes the name of a local landmark after all this time? Honestly, who names a hill a drumlin?
Other than the title, this blog has nothing to do with drumlins. It may have to do with hiking, or politics, or high school basketball, or whatever I'm thinking about at a given moment, but it probably won't have a thing to do with drumlins. If you got here by googling the word "drumlin," you're welcome to stay--but sorry, no drumlins.
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