My concern today is with the letter to the editor by reader Libby Schwartz, in your July 18 issue. Ms. Schwartz recounts a story she was told by a gas station attendant, claiming that competing stations “water down their product to charge a few cents less.”
This claim offers no support in fact. It might be true in some cases, but neither the writer nor editorial staff provide any evidence to support the claim. It is possible, if not likely then, that the claim is simply a tactic to demean other unnamed competitors. In any case, I was surprised and disappointed to see this letter published as it is, without at least an editorial footnote on the veracity of the claim.
In this era of fact-denial and blatantly “fake” news, I hope U.S. 1 will adhere to the highest standards of journalism, both in your own published stories, and in your choices for reader letters.
— Bruce Waltuck, Hamilton Square
Editor’s note: Good point, and in a perfect world we would have investigated that claim. Or, better yet, we would have labelled it as what it was — fanciful conjecture by a person who is possibly skeptical of the world of commerce.
