Everyone can agree that Nicole Aldrete-Ferrini is free to express her opinion on topics, especially when it is about a topic that has grabbed the community’s attention. On Saturday, El Paso Matters published an editorial by Ferrini discussing the recent arrest of community activist, Max Grossman. The problem with the editorial is not what Ferrini expressed as everyone can have an opinion, but rather what El Paso Matters did not do.
What the community knows about the Grossman arrest is that he has been accused of family violence against his former partner and the mother of his daughter. What is known currently is that Grossman has been accused but not convicted of any crime. He has no criminal record, and he and his former partner are going through acrimonious child custody litigation.
To insinuate that “for many women in this city,” Grossman’s arrest “was confirmation” of a violent man is not supported by any known facts.
Ferrini’s editorial is an attack against Grossman that is not “about accountability,” but is “about obliteration,” her words. Ferrini’s editorial was “not critique, but character assassination,” again her words. These are the same words she used about Grossman when she wrote that he is “a man who’s been a stain on local government and politics for more than a decade.”
Ferrini is clearly free to comment on and express her opinions of Grossman and his arrest. What is wrong is what El Paso Matters did by publishing the editorial.
El Paso Matters and Journalistic Ethics
The problem with the editorial on a topic that El Paso Matters has not reported on previously is generally considered unethical and goes against journalistic standards. The reason is that editorials and community letters for publication are supposed to be based on a foundation of facts that are established through reporting.
Accuracy and context are important to news. On the day that El Paso Matters published the Ferrini editorial, the only thing that was known was that Grossman had been arrested on a family violence charge. But readers who may have been aware of the arrest did not know this through El Paso Matters. To this day, El Paso Matters has yet to provide any coverage of the arrest. And yet, the editorial made several insinuations about Grossman’s character without providing any details – just an illusion of a violent man that the public record does not support.
But the worst lack of journalistic ethics at the El Paso Matters is not publishing the editorial without reporting on the topic beforehand, but in leaving out an important detail about Nicole Aldrete-Ferrini that provides important context to why she wrote her editorial – the fact that Grossman accused her of falsifying her professional credentials that other news media used to question her credentials, and that she left the city under questionable circumstances.
It doesn’t take much imagination to ask, was Ferrini’s editorial in response to her not being selected as El Paso’s next city manager or not working for the city anymore? Readers would likely want to know that important detail to understand the context behind her editorial. The lack of context betrays any semblance of journalistic ethics at the El Paso Matters.
One reader pointed this out to El Paso Matters after reading Ferrini’s editorial. Former El Paso Herald Post and Texas Tribune columnist who is now an attorney, Steve Fisher. Fisher wrote on social media that he submitted a rebuttal to El Paso Matters and was rebuffed with “an angry, ‘I’ll pass’,” response from the publication.
The reason El Paso Herald Post was relaunched is to provide the community with balance in the news coverage. We do this by offering additional details to news events, adding context to them and filling in the gaps when necessary. At the very least we force other outlets to ramp up their news coverage through competition. That also means that when we note a fundamental lack of journalistic ethics we will point it out to help build trust in the news industry that has lost the trust of the news consumers be doing exactly what El Paso Matters did with the Nicole Aldrete-Ferrini editorial – attack a member of the community by simply ignoring the most fundamental aspect of journalism, provide readers with the necessary context to understand what is behind an editorial that in her own words, is written to “influence by attacking” the man “who dared to lead, to speak, to take up public space.”
Picture credit: screen grab of El Paso Matters Nicole Aldrete-Ferrini editorial superimposed with picture of Aldrete-Ferrini, courtesy of the City of El Paso.
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The El Paso Herald Post is committed to publishing letters to the editor discussing current events and about our reporting. Send your letters to the editor to editor[at]elpasoheraldpost.com.
About Martín Paredes
Martín Paredes is the publisher of the El Paso Herald Post. He has been commenting and writing about El Paso’s public policy and politics for over 20 years. He is the author of several books. When he is not writing, he is running his technology company developing next generation digital tools.
The post Opinion: The El Paso Matters Ferrini Editorial Was Ethically Wrong appeared first on El Paso Herald Post.
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