Often times, news about what happens in the community is spread by word of mouth. This holds true for news and also for news's cousin, rumors. The problem with word of mouth, of course, is that news and rumors can be difficult to distinguish, and thus misinformation spreads like wildfire.

One example of this phenomenon is all the ink that's been spilled regarding the sale of the Nevele Resort — a sale that many people simply do not believe occurred, nor do they believe it will occur. Many make the assumption that what they believe to be truth must be refuted by evidence before they will cease to believe it — a sort of 'guilty until proven innocent' way of thinking.

When we report the news, we do so with as much basis in fact and truth as possible — but much of the time this only comes down to what we've been told by the parties involved. When people say that there's two sides to every story, what they forget is that, in reality, the truth lies somewhere in between those two sides.

In terms of the Nevele story, while many say there is no sale, we haven't seen any evidence to bear that out. We do know that a man seems to have staked his reputation on a contract of sale being signed, and has apparently convinced many high-ranking officials within Ulster County government that a closing will occur in the near future. As of now, there has been no evidence to prove otherwise, despite our digging and prodding.

In other articles we've printed over the last several months, be it a story about political rivals accusing each other of impropriety, developers who may or may not have an agenda, or a bureaucracy that may be sweeping problems under the rug, our sources of information have been just that: the sources of the stories. The people who are embroiled in conflicts are the ones who talk to us — and when one of those sources can't or won't speak, we only get one side of the story. And, since the truth lies somewhere between each sides version of the story, our capacity to determine where exactly to find that truth becomes that much harder.

Even when the sources are deemed to be "reputable," the police, for example, or a legal representative, or an eye-witness, the facts as given are often misleading and easily disputed, especially by those on the opposite side, if there is one. But the one fact that is indisputable is the effect of silence. When a party central to a story decides to remain silent, we are assured that the real story will never be known.