Editorial

1/15/00 - As the editor of Cranberry Stressline, I frequently have to decide whether or not to publish certain information. Rumors, allegations, descriptions of suspicious activities and actual copies of documents are often shared with me. The ultimate test of whether information goes public on Stressline is whether it meets journalistic criteria; not whether it will offend sensibilities.

Cranberry Stressline is a publication about the cranberry industry, read by people who are interested in the cranberry industry. My obligation to these readers is to publish accurate and complete information relevant to the past, present and future of the industry.

If rumors abound, whether in the real or the online donut shop, I may report this fact; because in certain instances prevalent rumors themselves are news. But I always report rumors as rumors, and every wild theory voiced by one or two people is not a rumor. My training and background as a psychotherapist has taught me how contagious rumors can be with the absence of facts in an atmosphere of fear. I always always take this into account in my reporting.

If industry sources give me "not for attribution" information, I will report it as coming from "a reliable insider." Readers either trust my definition of "reliable" or they don’t.

If I have actual documentation of information and have made no promises to a source to withhold publication, I make my decision based only on relevance.

Some posters have criticized me for posting information about Ocean Spray that would be readily available to anyone if the cooperative was a publicly traded corporation. A Board member once criticized Stressline for linking to hard-to-find articles on the Internet and thereby "making it easier for our competition to find information." I have also been thanked by other journalists and by consultants for making it easier for them to find information.

Stressline endeavors to make it easier for anyone to find information.

Currently, I’m being criticized for posting information on the Forum about the Chairman of the Board of Ocean Spray. There has been a polarized response from Forum participants as to whether I should have done this.

My decision was based on the fact that once the question was raised as to Mr. Hatton’s business, it became relevant to share what I could document. Activities of people entrusted with fiduciary responsibility for the running of any company, governmental entity, celebrity, or anyone who is in the public eye for that matter, has always been "fair game" for the media.  The information about Hatton's approved acreage falls into the category of a business activity; but I would report on any news about any important figure in the beverage industry if I thought it was relevant.

Not all such decisions are easy. For example, (and this hasn't happened!) if I noticed in the Police Log in the local paper that an executive from a cranberry company was arrested for drunk driving, would this be relevant? What if the arrest was for domestic assault? What if it was for income tax evasion? I would have to judge each case on its relevance. Cranberry Stressline isn't the National Enquirer or the Drudge Report.

I believe that most readers would expect nothing less from Cranberry Stressline than the reporting of complete information on matters related to the cranberry industry.