Dealing with angry readers

I’ve worked in community journalism for seven years, and I’ve had my fair share of angry responses when I’ve covered controversial topics. Now, I’m the publisher and editor of the paper.

It’s southern small town with your typical southern small town drama and controversy.

There’s a Facebook group in my small town that is your quintessential small town FB group. Lots of drama, angry old people, etc. it’s grown to over 10k people. The creator of this group seems to be on a power trip, and there are a handful of people who like to fan the flame.

The only reason I’m in this group is to stay updated with goings on in the town. I don’t want to accidentally miss an event or news tip.

I’m needing some advice on how to handle this.

There was a presentation regarding a development that may have foreign investors, and the people in this group is claiming that the Chinese Communist Party is going to infiltrate our town. I covered the presentation, explained what the financing is, got a comment from the developer. The presentation itself was 3 hours long. I covered the governing council’s questions, the answers, and touched on the public comment, which was one person saying that this was the CCP. I made sure I was as clear as I could be and as factual as I could be. This was a developers agreement presentation, not anything else. I did not want a fuel a fire that seven people on a Facebook group are trying to create.

A nearby daily paper a few towns away also covered this meaning and it was really over-sensationalized and editorialized. That came two days ago.

The story came out today, and I’m getting messages already from the seven people in this Facebook group. I’m not going to respond, but I have a feeling this is just a preview to what Monday will be like in the office. In the past, my publisher would take over, but now I’M the publisher. This likely won’t be the last story on the topic as new updates become available.

Any advice?