Editorial -- staff

Fairness On and Off the Field

March 1, 2004 – Senior Softball-USA editorial

Journalists are often skeptics, frequently irreverent and always curious.

Those traits are necessary in an unending quest to find and print issues of interest and importance that are usually hidden, either by intent, ignorance or bureaucracy.

In this search for meaningful information, reporters and editors strive to present a fair and balanced account; meaning each side of a controversy has a voice in the article.

It is human nature on the part of readers, to seize upon the opposing views in a story. So, it's not uncommon in a political story, for example, for Republicans to be outraged at what Democrats say and for the Democrats to be just as outraged at what the Republicans say. Both sides blame the newspaper for printing such biased views. That's actually a pretty good way to know the story is fair.

The important point is that both sides had their say.

Fairness is the cornerstone of credibility, and credibility is what newspapers are selling; whether it's The Wall Street Journal or a softball newspaper.

The reason for explaining this is so that you understand why Senior Softball News owes an apology to the Riverside Paving Team for the story published in the last edition.

It doesn't necessarily mean that the story was wrong; as a matter of fact, the Appeals Board upheld the player's suspension and placed the team on a year's probation . However, nowhere in the story did the team or player have a chance to respond.

That was not fair.

Their responses appear here, in an article detailing their appeal and the ultimate decision by the Appeals Board.

With apologies to the team, the player and our readers,

Terry Hennessy, Editor