The award-winning editorial (two pages)is attached to this document. It is available online at https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-life/beware-rural-outrage-cycle., Via online issue. 2 pages., This editorial was written by the author of the winning entry in the Editorial Opinion category, 2019 AAEA communications contest.
Posted at www.ageditors.com, President of American Agricultural Editors' Association describes challenges facing editorial independence and emphasizes the importance of following guidelines identified in the AAEA Code of Ethics.
AAEA members, their publications and advertisers are showing signs of strengthening the role of editorial independence in today's commercial environment.
Cites journalism educator Don Ranley who urges maintaining the wall between editorial and advertising, in the interest of reader credibility. "I am not a businessman, but it has to be good business to be trusted."
Reports that focus group research among farm readers shows they want information that is not a commercial on the editorial pages they read. "Isn't it strange? The very credibility these folks crave is the first thing to disappear when publishers agree to relax their standards."
