— by Lin McNulty, Managing Editor —
When Judy McGrath originally sent us an email outlining her concerns about Rock Island this week, she suggested that Orcas Issues might want to investigate. She was not willing to release her name.
In an email response, it was explained that Orcas Issues would be happy to print her comments, but that our ability to investigate was hampered by a lack of resources. She relented and agreed to allow us to print her piece.
Once the post went public, we were alerted that Judy McGrath appears to be a pseudonym. For that reason, we pulled the story and notified Ms. McGrath. The response: “This is disappointing. I can assure you that I am as real as the serious questions raised in my essay. I’m sorry if they’ve bullied you into pulling this, but I do not desire to fight.”
She was then advised “If you can verify your identification, we can proceed.” There has been no response.
Lin, I am sorry that someone chose to take advantage of your good will in the matter. I have no dog in this fight because I live on Waldron and we are not OPALCO members. Whoever is trying to attack Opalco in this manner has lost all credibility and I hope that if the same argument is made again in another letter, that you do not print it. You are doing a great job and should not be subject to this type of dishonesty.
Please be more careful.
The Society of Professional Journalist has a code of ethics, which might prove instructive:
https://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp