Our View:

Let's hear the whole story

We were a bit surprised Wednesday to get a tip that Jim Hastings was taking us to task on his radio show on WATA-AM because the Watauga Democrat refused to publish a letter written by local developer Phil Templeton.

We chose not to run it because we felt the letter raised certain legal issues and because we wanted to pursue a story or stories on the accusations made in the letter against Boone Mayor Loretta Clawson.

It was also a matter of fairness and printing an account of a conversation in which Hastings did not personally participate. We were promised by Hastings to have notes made of one of the conversations and a letter Templeton said he sent to Clawson immediately faxed to us. Rather than arriving immediately — as would have been conducive to breaking news — the fax arrived two days later.

Since that conversation between Watauga Democrat publisher Tommy Wilson and Hastings, several attempts were made to obtain the information promised, but it only materialized later.

Were our motives for not running the letter as self-serving as Hastings implied on the air, we would have accepted the cash offered by Templeton to run an ad with the letter in it.

Let’s be clear here. We are trying to be responsible to everyone involved and not allow a person to tell our readers what someone said without confirming that with the person being quoted.

A story related to this issue is featured on page 1 in this edition of the Watauga Democrat Weekender (and  on the Watauga Democrat's Web site). Other stories will follow as they are deemed appropriate.

Fairness and accuracy demand nothing less.