Allow me to make something perfectly clear once again, especially for those still sitting in the cheap seats.
A newspaper’s job is to report the news.
It really is that simple.
A newspaper does not exist to protect your reputation from your own behavior. It does not exist to make politicians comfortable, spare public officials embarrassment, preserve friendships, reward acquaintances or soften a story because somebody knows the publisher personally. Journalism becomes worthless the moment personal relationships determine which facts are reported and which ones are conveniently buried.
Apparently, that remains a difficult concept for some people to understand.
Over the years, and particularly since operating the Grants Pass Tribune, I have endured verbal attacks, malicious accusations, bullying, intimidation, threats of litigation, actual litigation, hostile emails and people calling me names in public. It continues today. I simply do not report every incident because doing so would accomplish very little, and frankly, I have more important things to do.
None of it frightens me. None of it changes the newspaper.
I have had careers considerably more difficult than publishing a newspaper, so angry emails and threats from people unhappy about seeing their conduct reported are hardly enough to send me running for cover.
But that is not really the reason for this letter.
This is about something much more fundamental: accountability.
If you become the subject of a legitimate news story because of something you said, did, filed, voted for, were arrested for, participated in or otherwise placed into the public arena, your personal relationship with me does not purchase immunity from coverage.
I do not care whether I know you.
I do not care whether I like you.
I do not care whether we have eaten dinner together, shaken hands, worked together, laughed together or spoken a hundred times. The same standard applies to politicians, candidates, law enforcement officers, business owners, community figures and anyone else whose actions legitimately become newsworthy.
I have told people this repeatedly, including politicians and members of law enforcement: knowing me personally does not come with an editorial exemption.
I am not exempt from that principle either. My own name has appeared in the news. Other publishers and reporters have chosen to write about me, and that comes with occupying a public position. I do not get to demand that another newspaper erase a story simply because I dislike seeing my name in print.
There is a difference between the person and the profession.
When a police officer stops someone for speeding, the officer did not press the accelerator. When someone is arrested for driving drunk, the officer did not pour the alcohol or turn the ignition key. Blaming the officer instead of examining the conduct that led to the arrest is an exercise in avoiding personal responsibility.
Blaming the newspaper for accurately reporting your actions follows the same broken logic.
The newspaper did not create the event.
The newspaper did not cast the vote.
The newspaper did not send the email.
The newspaper did not file the document.
The newspaper did not make the statement.
The newspaper did not commit the act.
The newspaper reported it.
That difference seems painfully obvious, yet some people will perform extraordinary intellectual gymnastics to avoid acknowledging it. Accountability has become increasingly difficult for those who would rather identify an enemy than look in the mirror. When the facts are uncomfortable, attacking the messenger apparently feels easier than confronting the conduct that produced the story.
You are certainly free to disagree with our reporting. If we make a factual mistake, tell us. Bring us the evidence. We will examine it, and when a legitimate correction is warranted, we will correct it. That is what responsible journalism requires.
What we will not do is alter factual reporting because somebody is angry, embarrassed, politically inconvenienced or personally acquainted with me.
Those are not corrections. Those are demands for preferential treatment.
There is another tactic that has become equally predictable: intimidation.
Sue me. Threaten to sue me. Send another hostile email. Call me another name. Whisper something about me around town. Try to embarrass me publicly. Attempt to bully this newspaper into silence.
You can come at the Grants Pass Tribune, and you can come at me, as often and as aggressively as you choose.
It will not change our reporting.
If anything, repeated attempts to intimidate a newspaper because it reported documented information raise their own obvious question: Why is someone working so hard to stop people from reading it?
Threats do not rewrite facts. Lawsuits do not magically transform documented events into fiction. Personal attacks do not erase public records. Calling a journalist names does not change what happened.
And intimidation certainly does not constitute a correction.
The Grants Pass Tribune will continue doing exactly what a newspaper is supposed to do. We will report what happens. We will ask questions. We will examine public records. We will contact people for their side of a story. We will correct legitimate factual errors when they occur, and we will not knowingly change accurate reporting simply because someone finds the truth inconvenient.
Nobody gets special treatment because they know the publisher.
Nobody gets a friendship exemption.
Nobody gets to bully their way into better coverage.
Nobody gets to rewrite yesterday because today’s newspaper made them uncomfortable.
If your objection concerns an actual factual error, bring it forward. If your objection is simply that you do not like people knowing what you did, that is an entirely different problem, and it belongs to you.
After all these years, I have learned that some people will never accept that distinction. They would rather scream at the newspaper, threaten the publisher, blame the reporter and manufacture conspiracies than take responsibility for their own actions.
So, for those who still cannot wrap their small minds around the elementary concept that a newspaper’s job is to report the news, perhaps Facebook is the better destination. Find an echo chamber, suck your thumb, have somebody bring you a cookie and collect the gold star you apparently believe comes with never being challenged.
The rest of us have work to do.
And so does this newspaper.
We intend to keep doing it.