News Is A Conversation: Who Holds Press Accountable?

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.

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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?