The Telegram newsroom has been bleeding staff for more than a decade, impeding the Central Mass. newspaper of record’s ability to hold power to account and provide comprehensive media coverage of the region. Yet, Petrishen remains a shining example of everything journalism can mean to a community, through his relentless investigations and dogged pursuit of the truth.
Petrishen started at the T&G in 2014, having previously worked for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham. In just the last year or so in Worcester, Petrishen reported a series of articles about Worcester Police Chief Steven Sargent preceding his retirement in September 2023, a series for USA Today examining Massachusetts’ decades-long failure to meaningfully collect and analyze data to check for racial profiling, and stories preceding the City of Worcester’s decision to resume posting spending government information online.
Petrishen said his proudest moment was the T&G’s successful lawsuit against the City of Worcester, where a judge found the City broke public records laws in bad faith to withhold documents.
“These laws benefit all Americans, regardless of political affiliation or ideology, and protecting the public’s right to obtain information to which it is legally entitled is a core function of the Fourth Estate,” he said.
Brad Kane is editor of the Worcester Business Journal.
