There are certain words in our language that need to be replaced occasionally because of context. Think “used car” becoming “previously owned vehicle,” or “garbage man” becoming “sanitation engineer,” or “undertaker” morphing into “mortician” and then “funeral director” and probably “bereavement facilitator” next. Or the various, now-unspoken descriptors for racial and ethnic groups and people with disabilities.

And in this age of grasping for revenue in the news business, we have “advertorial” becoming “sponsored content” and now, apparently, “content revenue.”

So I gather from a recent Brattleboro Reformer story about the hiring of longtime radio personality Peter “Fish” Case as “director of content revenue” for the paper’s parent company Vermont News & Media — the outfit owned by not-at-all-fishy Belarusian currency trader Paul Belogour.

We’ll get back to the whole “content revenue” thing and how it might affect the journalism on offer at Belogour’s three papers, The Reformer, The Bennington Banner, and The Manchester Journal. But there’s a more immediate question about the ethics of Case’s hiring that goes absolutely unmentioned in The Reformer‘s story about the hire. (The piece carries no byline, which means it wasn’t written by a reporter or editor. It’s a glorified press release, is what it is. There’s a little red flag off the top.)

See, Peter Case is not only a well-known personality around town and, per The Reformer, a “fixture in the Brattleboro business scene.” He’s also a member of the Brattleboro select board.

Things that make you go hmm.

The Reformer, the daily newspaper covering news and events in the city, has installed a member of the select board on its paid staff? And announced the move in an unbylined story that bypassed the paper’s journalistic channels? Geez Louise, I can hear the late press critic (and Vermont resident) George Seldes spinning in his grave.

To be fair, these are tough times for the news business and everyone is scrambling to replace the revenue gobbled up by Digital Age predators like Facebook, Google, and Craigslist. I’m sure The Reformer is hurting for dollars, and the hiring of a well-known figure with business connections (whose own radio career has dried up in the sad decline of that industry, so he needs the work) must have seemed like a win for all parties.

But only if you ignore the five-alarm ethical concerns.

The Reformer is far from the first media outlet to jump headfirst into the scummy pool of “content revenue,” but others have taken steps to mitigate the damage and rein in potential conflicts. Judging by its own smiley-faced coverage of Case’s hiring, I doubt that Vermont News & Media is interested in such trivia. For instance, you could loudly and publicly give The Reformer’s reporters and editors an absolute free hand in covering Case’s official actions — and run a disclosure alongside each and every story about the select board, just as Seven Days did for years when co-publisher Paul Routly’s life partner, Tim Ashe, was Senate president pro tem. You could clearly brand the paid content so there’s no potential for confusion on what’s news and what’s been bought and paid for.

Ya think that’s happening at The Reformer? Hope springs eternal. But if the paper was going to take such steps, the first place they’d do it is in the story about Case’s onboarding. Instead, they completely ducked the potential conflict. That doesn’t bode well.

While poking around for information about this story and the players, I came across the Facebook page of Belogour’s right-hand, VN&M Publisher Jordan Brechenser. He features a banner that’s more the muscly braggadocio of a MAGA wannabe than a man with a journalistic conscience. Looky here:

That’s the guy who hired Peter Case. Do you feel reassured?

The Reformer’s description of Case’s job does its best to conceal the grubby reality of “content revenue.” Case talks of helping people tell their stories and engage with their community. The Reformer describes him as planning “to use his radio voice and video editing skills to create new content for the local community.”

But there are coded references to Case’s real job: Creating content paid for by the subjects of his work. “Whether it’s local town issues, a business that has something special to offer, or the many great events and entertainment we have available, these stories need to be told and reach a wide, engaged audience,” he said in a press release. “Local town issues” sounds good, but that gets you back to Case’s presence on the select board. He should maybe not be covering “local town issues.” Then we have businesses with “something special to offer” and “great events and entertainment,” which are all in the category of paid content. It’s advertising.

Here’s another thought. When Case approaches a local business or event promoter, those worthies will doubtless be aware of his political position. It becomes a little bit harder to say “No” to his pitch, even if he tastefully refrains from the select board equivalent of flashing his badge.

Look, I know our communities are small and conflicts of interest are inevitable. But this is one hell of a big, obvious, potentially harmful conflict that’s being swept under the rug by the dominant media outlet in southern Vermont. That’s a discomfiting thought.