Sali editorial wasn't about his political views
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
Last Sunday’s Idaho Press-Tribune editorial that started a firestorm on several local, state and even national blogs, simply advised U.S. Rep. Bill Sali’s office to get some things in order.
The editorial even stated twice — once at the top and again at the bottom — the editorial was not about Sali’s politics, how he votes and where he stands
on issues.
Idaho Press-Tribune’s blog, entitled “From the Editors.”
Wayne Hoffman’s guest opinion and links to what other
bloggers have said also are on the new blog.
Managing Editor Vickie Holbrook and Assistant Managing
Editor David Woolsey will comment on newspaper issues,
explain our decision-making processes or pass on insight,
background or insider information that doesn’t make it into print.
Even more importantly, it gives you, our print readers and Web visitors, a chance to ask questions and offer feedback in an open and active forum.
Vickie has worked at the Idaho Press-Tribune for 29 years, starting as a reporter. She was named editor in 1996. David has been assistant managing editor since 2000 and worked for nine years at the Idaho Statesman before that.
Between the two of us, we have 46 years experience reporting on Treasure Valley news.
Some may ask if we are out to crucify Sali’s spokesman Wayne Hoffman. NO. For the record, Hoffman was an excellent Idaho Press-Tribune reporter for four years before the Idaho Statesman scooped him up.
A few years later Hoffman moved into the political realm. Through that time, we’ve maintained an excellent professional
relationship.
But it doesn’t change our opinion.
We believe it is inappropriate, no matter how legal it is, for Hoffman to wear two hats: one for Congressman Bill Sali, and one as an active spokesman for the “re-elect Bill Sali” campaign.
Originally, when the first editorial was published, it wasn’t about the person, even though we named Wayne Hoffman. It was about the practice.
On Wednesday night, we launched our “From the Editors” blog and admitted that our inspiration hinged on Hoffman’s recent “libel” comment about the Sunday editorial.
We wrote a pretty strong piece for the blog and explained our right to an opinion and reiterated our point about Hoffman working both sides on behalf of Bill Sali.
That prompted an even wider conversation among the bloggers and readers who offered their own insight.
Hoffman responded with a guest opinion that we printed Friday morning. He was understandably angry, saying I vilified him with the Wednesday commentary on our blog.
His guest opinion ended with this statement: “... the Press-Tribune has, regrettably, joined the chorus of shrill news lemmings all marching willingly to a sea of liberalism, filth and innuendo.”
Wow. If we had taken Sali to task on campaign issues, I could understand why someone would say the Idaho Press-Tribune has gone off its typically “conservative” rocker.
We don’t think we’ve become a liberal newspaper. Yes, the paper has been held up by many as a very conservative paper. It serves a conservative audience.
Further, Hoffman wrote that we were not factual in our editorial, but he didn’t give any examples to prove that. He criticizes us for a flurry of phone calls last week to check some facts.
Sure we did. We got an e-mail that said we were wrong. If we found solid information which proved that anything we had published was factually incorrect, we would have published a correction immediately. And we will continue to ask questions …
