Jan 14, 2008 By Mark O'Keefe 5 min read

It happens every day. Or so it seems. Somebody gets upset with a story we write about them. So, they give me a call. It could be a politician, a businessman or your regular everyday citizen.

Some people want a correction. If we made a mistake, we’ll gladly take care of that. Some think we should do another article, giving their side of the story. If they have a legitimate complaint, we’ll do that too.

They can also write a letter to the editor, and we’ll print those as long as they’re not libelous. Sometimes, we’ll even give people a chance to express themselves in a column.

But, there are others who just call to vent. They don’t want anything done. They just want to complain. I’ll suggest that they talk to a reporter, but they’re so upset they don’t want to talk to anyone from the paper. In fact, usually the only reason they’re calling me is to cancel their subscription and to tell me that they won’t ever be talking to us in the future.

So, how are we supposed to get their side of the story when they won’t give it to us. That’s probably the most frustrating part of this job.

Despite what some people think, we don’t intentionally go out of our way to make people look bad. We’re too busy to hold grudges or pursue vendettas. What purpose would that possibly serve? Our job is to sell as many papers as we possibly can. Period. We’re a business. We may disagree with policies or decisions from time to time, but it’s nothing personal. We’re concerned solely about issues, especially when it comes to things such as open records and good government.

Now, we’re human so we make mistakes. Most of the time, we have to rely on other people to give us information, so, occasionally something will get lost in the translation.

Also, we’re not experts on everything. We deal with a lot of complex issues that can’t easily be boiled down to a 300-word story. Don’t forget that we have to put out a paper everyday with competition coming from every which way. So, we’re up against tight deadlines, and we may not have time to explore every angle and nuance of an issue.

That’s why we do lots of follow-up stories to try and make sure we give readers a better understanding of the various issues and concerns facing them.

That’s also why we’re more than happy to set the record straight when we make a mistake. And whether that’s a correction or another story, we’ll do whatever is necessary to make sure we have correct information for our readers.

What can you do, though, when someone won’t give us their side of the story? It happens more than you think. Politicians do it all the time. I remember one public official who wouldn’t talk to us for a couple of years. Guess what happened? His opponent had no such problem, so all that appeared in the paper was his view of things. It may have looked like we were favoring him, but we had no choice. He was the only one talking, so that’s all we had to write about.

I had a similar experience with a local businessman, who I liked and considered a friend. We wrote a story about an incident involving his business, and he was very upset about it. We weren’t able to get hold of him for the story, and he felt we had intentionally hurt him and his business. I told him we’d be more than happy to get his side of the story and write another article but he refused to talk to a reporter.

So, what could we do? I certainly understood his frustration. No one likes to see anything bad written about them. It doesn’t help that we’re a small county and everyone knows everyone. But what’s done is done. I couldn’t take back the story. I was trying to be helpful. But he didn’t want my help. He just wanted to be bitter and upset.

In these instances, the people involved think they’re hurting us. And while we need every subscriber we can get, we’ll get by and we’ll still publish a paper everyday. No, the real people they’re hurting are our readers because they’re not getting the full story. And there have been cases where valid questions have gone unanswered because someone wouldn’t talk to us.

It’s always been my hope that everyone would talk to us. I think the more voices that are heard, the more information people will have to make better choices about who and what to believe. That’s why it’s so frustrating when some people decide not to talk to us. I wish I had a solution to the problem, but there’s really nothing I can do.

However, I do have a suggestion. If you’re involved in a similar situation, try to realize that it’s nothing personal, and we do want to set the record straight. But only you can make that happen.

Mark O’Keefe is the executive editor of the Herald-Standard. O’Keefe can be reached by phone at 724-439-7569, by e-mail at mo’keefe@heraldstandard or by regular mail at 8-18 Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401.