Question: I’m quite disturbed by the unqualified reporting of two recent stories.

First was the story regarding Adam Morrison and his propensity to mix it up at times. The reporter failed to acknowledge or understand that diabetics can often get very hostile when their blood sugar level is out of balance. I have learned this by observing this unusual conduct by a close friend over the years. Perhaps the reporter should consult with professionals before deriding individuals in their stories. Here the blame goes to the reporter.

The next narrative involves irresponsibility on the part of the assignment editor. This poorly manufactured story involves the ridicule of Adam’s mustache and the ridiculous conclusion that there is little hope that Adam will ever have much of a ‘stache. Imagine assigning a female reporter to such a subject.

Any male reporter would likely realize that many young men don’t develop full beards and mustache until middle or late 20s. The first clue might have been to observe the full ‘stache of Adam’s father.

Spokane should be nothing but proud to be home to perhaps if not the greatest collegiate athlete, at least the hardest working and committed athlete in the nation and his willingness to not allow diabetes to stand in his way to achieve excellence in his sport. I imagine Ms. Neely will someday eat her words.

I’d expect this kind of reporting from an opponent’s newspaper, certainly not from a community that is ever so proud of a young man who has overcome the tremendous obstacles and achieved so much. Is this not only irresponsible journalism but embarrassing journalism for our community? – Allan LeTourneau, Spokane

Answer: Tough criticism, but largely unwarranted, I think. The reporter on the Morrison behavior story explicitly pursued the diabetes angle. But the story makes clear that neither Adam Morrison nor the team’s medical support staff believe blood sugar is an issue for him. One reason to go into the story was to determine if, in fact, diabetes was a problem. No authority with whom we consulted said it was and the story said as much.

The mustache story was fun, tongue in cheek and a nice sidebar to an ongoing community discussion that Morrison himself seems to enjoy. Our online contest to pick an appropriate mustache for Morrison generated hundreds of responses.

I would argue strongly that it wasn’t at all mean-spirited. The entire town is Zags-happy. Most newspaper staffers would consider themselves fans. Institutionally, The Spokesman-Review devotes an enormous amount of time, news space, money and energy to covering the Zags.

But our role is not to place these fine young men on a pedestal, to make them more than what they are or to exempt them from scrutiny when such scrutiny is warranted. Nor will we take what they do and the game they play – it is a game, after all – so seriously that we avoid poking fun from time to time.

On a more serious note, when it comes to big-time college athletics, there are folks who think the local newspaper has an obligation to booster the local team. Mainstream newspapers and sports staffs reject that notion. We’re not boosters, we’re not for or against. We’re there to write the story, whatever the story might be. – Steve Smith, editor