Article unprofessional
Nina Culver’s June 20 article, “NAACP acknowledges fallout,” is worse than shoddy journalism. It is misleading and deceiving. I expect journalists to understand the issues and to present them clearly, perhaps even enlightening others.
Her paragraph, “Dolezal resigned as president and was removed from Spokane’s Police Ombudsman commission this week after it became known that she had been lying about her race for years by pretending to be black,” is either very lazy writing or deliberately obstructing the truth.
The Police Ombudsman Committee’s investigation started in May, well before there was issue with Dolezal’s race. She was asked to resign because of the commission findings; It had nothing to do with race.
Why is this important? Lying makes people uncomfortable, and the liar loses credibility. The actions discovered by the investigation are way more serious and impact others and the city of Spokane in much deeper, more serious and even dangerous ways. Abuse of staff, not keeping confidentially and disagreements over expense reporting issues are much more significant character lapses than lying about race.
Culver glossed over the facts and distorted the issue. She should be ashamed, and The Spokesman-Review should be ashamed that they did not catch this very unprofessional job.
Kathryn Alexander
Spokane