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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2019)
4A | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. Sixth St. Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424 NED HICKSON , MANAGING EDITOR | Opinion 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ CGSENTINEL . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respect- ing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Govern- ment for a redress of grievances. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) USPS#133880 Copyright 2019 © COTTAGE GROVE SENTINAL Letters to the Editor Policy The Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published. Letters containing poetry or from outside The Sentinel readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. Political/Election Letters: Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must: 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and perspective rather than partisanship and campaign-style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid political advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria. Send letters to: Never in a hurry to ‘be fi rst’ with bad information the media industry itself in our era of instant information and access; some of it comes from pressure outside the industry due to social media’s ability to spread speculation, rumor and assumption like wildfire through community cross referencing our in- formation to assure that we could offer a com- prehensive report that had been vetted through multiple sources. We were in no hurry to “be first” in offering incomplete or unverified information to the com- foundation of informa- tion moving forward rather than half-truths and speculation. Having a real conver- sation about the terrible nature of this incident Before becoming a requires a clear and journalist some 21 years accurate understanding ago, I was a chef for 10 of what happened, and years working in Hous- how it happened, before ton, Atlanta and even- we can begin to assure it tually Portland. I had a From the Managing Editor’s Desk never happens again. simple mantra I repeated In addition to provid- in every restaurant, from Ned Hickson ing accurate and credible line cook to server: reporting, we also under- Never be in a hurry to stand that what we report serve bad food. circles. munity we serve. can have real-life conse- As a journalist and Never be in a hurry to Understandably, some quences for members of editor, it’s a mantra that community members our community, whether I have applied to report- serve bad food — or in the case of good jour- were frustrated with the it be the school district, ing the news, especially nalism, inaccurate or lack of coverage in this police department, vic- when it involves sensi- tim or the accused. tive, controversial or in- incomplete information. newspaper once larger Today’s front-page sto- outlets such as KEZI We are in no hurry vestigative stories within ry on the terrible hazing and The Register-Guard to “be first” in making our community. began reporting informa- matters worse for our In an age where media incident in the Cottage Grove High School lock- tion provided by anony- community or those outlets are constantly er room is a story we had mous sources. within it by fueling ru- competing to “be first” been working on since We took some lumps mor or speculation with to break news, there is late September, talking on social media but were irresponsible reporting. a pattern of reporting determined to approach Our reporting on this that has evolved making with people on and off the record; contacting our gathering of infor- incident wasn’t about incomplete, unverified or “being first,” but rather to single-sourced reporting local police as well as the mation — and eventual acceptable in order to “be district attorney’s office; reporting — with objec- be first in providing you working to obtain official tivity and thoroughness with information that is first.” documentation, reports so that the community factual and complete. Some of this comes had a solid and accurate from the pressure within and verification; and nhickson@cgsentinel.com HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS Oregon state representatives Oregon federal representatives • Sen. Floyd Prozanski • Rep. Peter DeFazio District 4 State Senator PO Box 11511 Eugene, Ore. 97440 Phone: 541-342-2447 Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us (House of Representatives) 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: defazio.house.gov/ contact/email-peter Phone: 541-465-6732 • Rep. Cedric Hayden Republican District 7 State Representative 900 Court St. NE Salem, Ore. 97301 Phone: 503-986-1407 Website: www.leg.state.or. us/hayden Email: rep.cedrichayden@ state.or.us • Sen. Ron Wyden 405 East 8th Ave., Suite 2020 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: wyden.senate.gov Phone: (541) 431-0229 • Sen. Jeff Merkley Email: merkley.senate.gov Phone: 541-465-6750 S entinel C ottage G rove 541-942-3325 Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216 gsantana@cgsentinel.com Veronica Brinkley, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1205 vbrinkley@cgsentinel.com Carla Summers, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203 csummers@cgsentinel.com Editorial Ned Hickson, Managing Editor... 541-902-3520 nhickson@cgsentinel.com Damien Sherwood, Lead Reporter... Ext. 1212 dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Nick Snyder, Sports/Community News Reporter... Ext. 1204 nsnyder@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200 mfringer@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... 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