Who Got to Dunkle?

From September 2014 to November 9, 2018, I was a columnist for The Republican Journal. In that time I wrote 75 columns for The Republican Journal.

On November 9, 2018, Dan Dunkle, news director for Courier Publications, owner of The Republican Journal, fired me by email.

On November 15 The Republican Journal ran an editorial in which Dunkle attacked my journalism and somehow failed to mention, in 847 words, that he had fired me. On November 19, I submitted an op-ed of comparable length, and Republican Journal Editor Stephanie Grinnell told me I would be allowed only 500 words for my response to Dunkle's editorial.

So The Republican Journal attacked my journalism with 847 words, and allowed me only 500 words to defend myself.

Below you will find what would have been my response had The Republican Journal allowed me equal time.

***

In his November 15 Republican Journal editorial, News Director Dan Dunkle uses 847 words to attack my journalism, yet he somehow fails to mention that he fired me. In his editorial, Dunkle says, “We don't want to silence anyone.” But that's exactly what Dunkle did: he silenced me.

Dunkle says “..we respected that Lawrence was working hard and doing a lot of research,” and then Dunkle faults me for “conducting interviews and research” and “flying to Europe.”

There is nothing wrong with a columnist doing any of that. Many of the best columns anywhere are informed by research, interviews and travel. Neither Dunkle nor Republican Journal Editor Stephanie Grinnell ever expressed any concern over numerous columns I filed from Mexico, Colombia and Central America.  Nor did they express concern over interviews I had conducted with, among others, eminent historian Taylor Branch. And earlier this year, Grinnell commended my research.

Dunkle decries my headlines “Nordic's credibility chasm” and “The most toxic food in the world?” But the assertions in those headlines are documented in the columns themselves, and further documentation was available for Dunkle's inspection had he cared to ask for it.

Dunkle states, “...we were developing a credibility problem of our own.” But Dunkle confuses complaints with a credibility problem. In phone conversation with me, Dunkle said I wouldn't believe the number of calls and emails he had received about my writing. But calls and emails don't constitute a credibility problem – incorrect facts do, and my facts were accurate. Nowhere does Dunkle assert that I got the facts wrong, and for good reason – I didn't.

To cite but one example, I asserted in a column that a 14-year-old former Nordic Aquafarms employee illegally handled the highly toxic DuPont chemical Virkon S - and nowhere has Nordic denied this. Instead, Nordic has attempted to discredit me by saying it has never hired underage workers – a charge I never made. But rather than take the time to appreciate this non-denial denial, Dunkle bought into the incorrect idea that I had the facts wrong.

Dunkle asks how one can be sure of fairness. By fact-checking, that's how. I repeatedly offered Dunkle documentation. Dunkle says that “any statement of scientific 'fact' must be backed up..” Well, I did that – I backed up my scientific facts - and I got fired.

Dunkle says, “We had reached a point where neither Lawrence nor I could compromise on our positions.” This is false. I repeatedly offered to limit my Nordic coverage, but rather than even discuss that, Dunkle simply fired me.

Dunkle decries the number of times I wrote about Nordic. But I never commandeered The Republican Journal's printing press – The Republican Journal approved every one of my Nordic columns, and in fact ok'ed another one. In phone conversation, Dunkle himself called my seventh Nordic column “interesting.” This wasn't about the quantity of my Nordic coverage. By Dunkle's own words, he was pressured. Who pressured him and what did they say?  Did Nordic threaten to file suit?  Dunkle denied this in his editorial, but there are many ways to threaten suit without threatening suit.

Dunkle states that “we ended up with an uncomfortable hybrid of investigative journalism and opinion column.” In fact, there is a long tradition of just such hybrids. In 1972, syndicated columnist Jack Anderson revealed that the Democratic Party vice-presidential nominee, Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, had received electroshock treatment for depression. And on May 17, 2018, the New York Times opinion section ran a major investigatory article on efforts by California officials, including Governor Jerry Brown and former Attorney General and now U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, to block DNA tests that could prove the innocence of Kevin Cooper, a California man who has served 35 years in prison for multiple murders. It's called good journalism.

Dunkle states that “journalists are supposed to leave their opinion out of it.” But for four years my column ran under the masthead “OPINION.” For four years it was found under “Opinion” on The Republican Journal's website, and my four Maine Press Association awards, which The Republican Journal touted, were for opinion.

Dunkle faults me for being an activist, but for four years The Republican Journal printed my column with a tagline at the bottom describing me as an activist.

Dunkle implies that I said people involved in the Nordic controversy were “liars with criminal affiliations.” What I in fact wrote was that an incorrect assertion made by a Nordic-sponsored panel that humans don't consume the small “forage” fish that comprise farm-fish food – and that same panel's failure to correct that misstatement – constituted a lie. In fact, of 14 fish species that commonly comprise fish-farm fishmeal, 13 are eaten by humans and the 14^th is consumed as fish oil. And I said that a key Nordic hire had a history of working for some of the most criminal corporations in recent U.S. history. I stand by that statement.

Dunkle did get one thing right. He said I didn't pull any punches. Correct. I didn't. It wasn't my job to pull punches. But now, apparently, that is The Republican Journal's job.

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Lawrence Reichard

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Belfast, ME  04915

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