In the article published on Sept. 26, titled, “Amtrak cancels long distance trains: Workers go on strike,” The Mass Media incorrectly reported two pieces of information. The first is that the “looming strikes” surrounding Amtrak workers were finite, and the second is that the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority manages ACE services. These mistakes were made as a result of using out of date articles on a time-sensitive story, which is a journalistic error we take full responsibility for. According to the Associated Press, the strikes surrounding the Amtrak workers were averted, and a deal was struck a day prior to when the workers were scheduled to stop (1). In addition, SJJPA manages and operates the Amtrak San Joaquin intercity passenger rail service, and works with Amtrak for operations. The San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission is the manager of ACE, which is a commuter line. The negotiations did not involve SJJPA.
The Mass Media’s mission is to provide well-researched and informative articles to the student body and to the Boston Metro Area. Unfortunately, our misidentification of the possible strikes and the SJJPA was incorrect, and we sincerely apologize to the student body for the misinformation we communicated.
In order for articles to be published at The Mass Media, they must go through several checkpoints, including copyeditors, the Managing Editor and the Editor-in-Chief. In this case, the writer used out of date resources, our checkpoints failed to identify the possible issues with this article, and we were only informed of the error following its publication. This mistake has encouraged us to reevaluate our vetting process and reeducate ourselves on the best tactics to find reliable sources. We encourage any faculty with comments and concerns to reach out to our News Editor, Kaushar Barejiya, at [email protected]. Thank you for your continued support of The Mass Media.