Thank you for that. But feel free to call or write even if it's in the heat of the moment. We become a better newspaper, staffed by more effective journalists, when our mistakes, even just our imperfections, are called to our attention. In the nearly 28 years I've made my living as a journalist, I have come to believe that we best uphold our journalistic principles when we pay close attention to what works. The mistakes and misinterpretations that get into print under those conditions corrode the trust that must exist between readers and the journalists who serve them.
Enough mistakes can eat the trust away.
I'm proud that The News-Sentinel continues to devote staff to having a reader representative in the newsroom and that its top editors give that representative a voice in things. I'm convinced, from my own experiences calling or walking into other, unfamiliar newsrooms, that just getting journalists' attention can be difficult for anyone not involved in the daily drive toward publication. I'm also proud of the usually tiny notice that runs near the bottom of Page 3A in every News-Sentinel. It calls attention not only to any corrections we need to make, but also to the many days when there are none. And it invites readers any day, every day to call or write to me and speak their mind.