Before I left for Montana this afternoon to pick up my daughter from the ranch where she works each summer, I had a long conversation with a local physician who was quite upset with our story Saturday about Dr. Fregeau, the physician who, it seems, missed the signs that Tyler DeLeon was being abused. I think the story was fair and accurate, but I can understand how Dr. Fregeau's friends and colleagues will rush to his defense on the basis that he was caught up in a situation outside his control. I don't see it that way, but I get it. In any event, in talking to me, the doctor today said we had "bullied" Dr. Fregeau. And then he asked, "Who holds you accountable when you make a mistake?" His point was, more or less, that the press operates without checks and that there seems to be no remedy when the press makes a mistake -- Editor Steve Smith/News Is A Conversation.
Question (from Steve Smith): How is the newspaper held accountable for its actions and if the existing mechanisms are inadequate, what processes do you think ought to be instituted?
Also posted on A Matter of Opinion blog
D.F. Oliveria started Huckleberries Online on Feb. 16, 2004. Oliveria's Sunday print Huckleberries is a past winner of the national Herb Caen Memorial Column contest.
conversation with a local physician who was quite upset with our story Saturday about Dr. Fregeau, the physician who, it seems, missed the signs that Tyler DeLeon was being abused. I think the story was fair and accurate, but I can understand how Dr. Fregeau's friends and colleagues will rush to his defense on the basis that he was caught up in a situation outside his control. I don't see it that way, but I get it. In any event, in talking to me, the doctor today said we had "bullied" Dr. Fregeau. And then he asked, "Who holds you accountable when you make a mistake?" His point was, more or less, that the press operates without checks and that there seems to be no remedy when the press makes a mistake -- Editor Steve Smith/News Is A Conversation.
