A plainly scurrilous blast, alleging petty theft and sexual harassment just for starters, respecting a one-time Malibu Farmer’s Market vendor’s claimed differences with Cornucopia Foundation, the Farmer’s Market operator. The bombshell dropped just barely in time for the paper’s Dec. 29 deadline, but altogether too late for responsible fact checking and opportunity for rebuttal.
What are the do’s and don’ts you and all your reporters must have been taught in Journalism 1-A?
Caution, don’t let yourself be used. Don’t stop the presses a la “Front Page” to run what you were fed, but do start checking needed for fair coverage of the matter.
Example: Petitions allegedly signed by “about three dozen vendors …” (Surfside News) “50 Malibu Farmers Market vendors … ” (The Malibu Times) Which is right? Not really hard to check. Has anyone checked the petitions for authenticity? Are all the signatories Malibu Farmer’s Market vendors? Please, do some real investigative reporting regarding Cornucopia Foundation and California Certified Farmer’s Markets. Are they for profit, strictly non-profit? Finally, is sexual harassment between landlord and tenant-vendor a legal possibility? I think not. I suggest that a real feature story is in order here.
Arthur London