It's Samuel Adams But Not That Samuel AdamsBy Susan Bush
01:00PM / Thursday, May 17, 2007
It was a mistake made by a brand-new full-time reporter attending her first Adams Selectmen's meeting, so please don't be too hard on her.
iBerkshires reporter Jen Thomas, after attending the meeting last night, dutifully wrote a story that included, in the story lead paragraphs, that the Samuel Adams LLC had signed a purchase agreement with Selectmen for the Jones Block on Park Street. She even did a little research and included a bit of background about the Samuel Adams Brewing Co., who the parent company is, and the many varieties of beer that they brew.
The trouble is, it isn't that Samuel Adams company that bought the building [and you can only imagine the confusion this morning when I called the actual Sam Adams beer company in Boston to do a follow-up on this story].
The Jones Block was purchased by Jerry Sanchez, who then formed the Samuel Adams LLC company. When it was announced at the Selectmen's meeting that the Samuel Adams LLC had purchased the building, Ms. Thomas believed that the buyer was indeed the brewing company. She learned one of the most basic lessons in journalism - do not assume - in a very difficult, very public way.
As editor of iberkshires.com, I take full responsibility for the error. I should have confirmed the information before I allowed the story to post. I apologize to readers for the mistake and I have apologized to the good folks at the Sam Adams brewing company, who do, in fact, produce some seriously fine brews. They just don't do it in Adams, nor do they plan to.
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