No comment

Often when a reporter uses phrases like "declined to answer questions", "had no comment for this article", and "did not respond to requests for an interview", it's usually not good for the person the story is about.

At least it did not bode well for those who refused to answer questions posed by The Record's Jeff Pillets in a series of articles he wrote about EnCap that has recently earned him accolades from his peers. The EnCap series was also "selected as a finalist in the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting," (The Record, 8/22/08).

So it seems like a double standard when North Jersey Media Group Vice-President/Editor Frank Scandale declined to confirm or deny any investigation of Pillets by the New Jersey State Police for allegedly swiping some documents from the Department of Environmental Protection.

Instead Scandale punted PolitickerNJ.com's inquires to the Attorney General Office's who also declined to comment.

But of course. That's standard operating procedure for law enforcement folks. It's not for a newspaper organization.

When you have nothing to hide, it's always better to respond rather than hide behind the proverbial "no comment." That's one reason The Record and Pillets should just answer the questions.

Here's another.

Pillets is part of the team of journalists from The Record up for the Kevin Carmody Award For Outstanding Investigative Reporting selected by the Society of Environmental Journalists "for their continuing investigation of EnCap, the failed landfill-to-golf-links redevelopment in the Meadowlands" according to the paper's own boasting.

Five of the team's stories published since December 2006 were so outstanding The Record is among 30 finalists out of 230-plus entries selected for one of the industry's top honors by SEJ's panels of esteemed journalists and journalism educators.

The awards will be announced at the SEJ's annual conference in Roanoke, Va., on Oct. 15.

As The Record's own environmental reporting proves, "no comments" only taint the record.

DEBBIE HOLTZ can be reached via email at debbie.holtz@politickernj.com.

Related topics: The Record, Pulitzer Prize, JEFF PILLETS, Frank Scandale

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Comments

Not All Moved Out Yet?

posted by Commentor

For an Editor at the Record to have quite appropriately left it up to to Jeff Pillets to explain exactly what happened, hardly seems out of line!

Looks like you may have jumped the shark on this one, Deb.

Sounds like somebody really ought to consider being just a bit more cautious, or folks could become tempted to say things like, "You can take the girl out of the Majority Office, but you can't take the Majorty Office out of the girl."

Not that I would ever think such a thing . . .

by Trochilus

09/24/08 1:51 pm

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Jeff Pillets is a real reporter.

posted by Demsanddonts

Unlike the gossip and trash that spews this pro-Corzine, pro-liberal website each and everyday.

If this site had an ounce of integrity it would be praising Pillet's work on the EnCap story!

Vote Column "A" - All the way!

09/24/08 1:54 pm

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Your poll

posted by midroad

Your poll on the right (no pun) could have posed two opposite questions, one of which is "do you think the explanation already given by Pillets is sufficent?" and/or "do you think that an employer has the right to make a statement regarding whether or not an employee is under investigation?" or any of the plethora of questions that would truly be an opposing point of view instead of the obviously slanted ones you asked.

Pillets already gave an explanation......funny that you didn't include it in your story above. You must have some kind of grudge. Maybe The Record turned you down for a job?!

09/29/08 8:09 pm