In this election season like few others, with a former president running for a seat he lost four years ago and all that entails, I’ve been mostly glad my position with this publication has me looking close to home and not even at Vermont’s statewide politics.
The temptation to reach farther into Vermont than the 11 towns the Gazette covers is sometimes strong, particularly when the issues involved touch on those in this area. Similarly, it’s tempting to comment and share our opinions on local political races.
Paying attention to Vermont House and Senate races here at the Gazette has us looking more deeply at them than many publications with a wider scope. We see things that others might not and would sometimes like to point them out to our readers.
While we might like to, we can’t. The Gazette’s IRS 501(c)(3) status prevents us from doing so. The IRS is clear on that, noting organizations like us “are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.” Full stop!
There’s not any ambiguity in that statement. Clearly it means we can’t endorse any candidate and we must give each candidate equal opportunities in our writing, our advertising and any outside forums we participate in.
More specifically it means that you, our readers, are charged with reading our articles about candidates and the elections with a critical eye because we aren’t going to directly point out the implications of statements a candidate might make. We will fact check candidate statements when we can.
If we write, “Candidate X said, “. . . ,” that might mean we didn’t fact check the statement and it’s up to you to form an opinion about it. If we paraphrase a comment, you can be almost certain we did fact check it.
If we find a candidate said one thing in one place and time and another elsewhere we will do our best to call it out, but we won’t call either statement a lie, or even a mis-statement. We might simply say the statements were different.
The bottom line is, we won’t judge candidates. We will provide information that we hope will help you judge them.
The Gazette is now owned by Northeast Kingdom Public Journalism Inc, a Vermont Public Benefit Corporation. That means, through our board, we are organized for a “public or charitable purpose and which upon dissolution must distribute its assets to the United States, a state, or a person which is recognized as exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.”
From our perspective, that means we don’t want to deny anyone a voice, or a chance to participate in community dialogue if they do so respectfully.
Jan Mueller, at last night’s Politics and Pie event said it well when he laid out one of the ground rules, noting, we will be tough on the issues, soft on each other.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
