wbjournal.com | February 20, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
Digital Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com
Staff Writers
Laura Finaldi, lfinaldi@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing, higher education)
Emily Micucci,
emicucci@wbjournal.com (Health care)
Editorial Intern, Savannah Donohue,
sdonohue@wbjournal.com
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub
Livia Gershon
Research Director,
Stephanie Meagher,
smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Associate Art Director,
Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Custom Publishing Project Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Kim Vautour,
kvautour@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
R
eaders of our digital stories on
WBJournal.com know the vast
majority of these articles don't
have direct quotes.
These stories are almost always written
up from company announcements –
usually in the form of press releases –
and we want to publish the news in the
most effective way possible. Sure, the
press releases contain direct quotes from
company leadership, but these quotes
rarely provide added value and are vetted
beforehand in an ingenuine way.
Since I became editor in September
2015, we have sparsely used quotes from
anonymous sources, only relying on
them in stories from other news outlets
when our own reporting cannot verify
the news. While I recognize the need to
use anonymous sources where people
risk threats to their lives and livelihoods
by revealing information that could, say,
lead to reporting on illegal conduct by a
presidential administration, oftentimes
media allow themselves to be manipulat-
ed by those in positions of power only
for sake of scooping competitors.
Media's use of anonymous sources and
canned PR quotes hit rock bottom this
month in the frenzy after former New
York Knick Charles Oakley was thrown
out of a Knicks game after shoving a
security guard at Madison Square
Garden. After the fan favorite basketball
player said the issue stemmed from his
feud with Knicks billionaire owner and
public opinion began to shift in Oakley's
favor, the Knicks issued a release of
anonymous quotes from supposed MSG
employees saying Oakley was at fault.
The inherent trust between publica-
tions and readers on anonymous sources
relies on reporters appropriately vetting
the sources and determining if the infor-
mation they give is worth the lack of
transparency. The New York Times –
which probably still holds the title of the
gold standard in journalism ethics –
though, published a story using the
Knicks anonymous sources. These could
have been completely made-up quotes
from the Knicks' PR department, or even
if they were true, disregarded because no
employee can be counted on to provide
Basketball & the New York Times failure
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
published bi-weeky, 24x per year, including 5 special
issues in April, July, September, November and
December, by New Engand Business Media. 172
Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals
postage paid at Worcester, MA. Copyright 2015. All
rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address
changes to: Worcester Business Journal, PO Box 330,
Congers, NY 10920-9894.
Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for
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508-755-8004 tel.
• 508-755-8860 fax
www.wbjournal.com
A division of:
NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5 Flash Poll
12 FOCUS on Business Leaders
21 The List: Highest-paid state employees
22 The Rainmaker
23 Know How
24 On the Move
27 Photo Finish
28 Business Leads
29 Opinion
30 Shop Talk: Richard Burke,
Fallon Health
8 The perils of pay raises
A rising wage in Worcester County is good
news, with some complications.
10 The MassHealth problem
While embracing certain proposed
solutions, the Central Mass. business
community bristles as Gov. Baker floats a
company healthcare penalty.
I N T H I S I S S U E
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
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unbiased testimony when the interviewer
is their employer. Nonetheless, the NYT,
among others, used the quotes as the basis
for supposed fact-based reporting.
In this case, journalism failed.
- Brad Kane, editor
W
