A cautionary tale of letter writing and politics

May I direct your attention to a Fence Post letter appearing elsewhere on this page?

It's headlined, "Response to Herald story on District 204." Submitted by four school board candidates in Indian Prairie Unit District 204, it takes the district administration to task for its handling of the sexual assault of an 11-year-old, a student at Gregory Middle School in Naperville. If the letter continued in that vein, we wouldn't have published it, as the Daily Herald long has opted not to run letters from candidates about their campaign during election season. We've held that the letters-to-the-editor column should be an exchange of opinions among our readers. (And, yes, we do allow non-candidates to sound off on elections, as you may have noticed.)

However, as you can see, the letter veers off into some harsh criticism of Justin Kmitch, the reporter who's covered the District 204 controversy. The candidates say they are "very unhappy" that the story stated they declined to return calls, because they did try to call him repeatedly, and one candidate, in fact, says he was never contacted. Sounds like some pretty sloppy reporting, and were it true, Justin would be in a boatload o' trouble.

I showed Justin the Fence Post letter, and he painted a much different version of events, as I would have hoped. So, he e-mailed the candidates, pointing out that he had, indeed, been trying to contact them for several days. Portions of the e-conversation that ensued with Eric Hepburn, whose name appears first on the letter, is illuminating.

KMITCH: "Your wife called me last week after I left a few messages for you, and said you were out of town. I gave her the questions I had for you and I gave her my e-mail and phone number. She told me she would pass that information on to you and that you would be responding to me via e-mail or returned call. I never heard from you after that conversation." HEPBURN: "Apparently there was a disconnect on the message I received, I was under the impression you were going to call me back on Monday."

KMITCH: "So if you received a message and thought I was calling you back on Monday, it's probably not accurate to write a letter to the editor stating that you were never contacted. Right? That seems a little unfair."

HEPBURN: "I can only speak for myself but I did not see the e-mail or approve of the language prior to it being sent, hence my clarification today."

I don't know precisely who sent the letter or if the candidates have a campaign manager or handler. And I don't want to portray these candidates as villains; more egregious misunderstandings or misrepresentations have occurred.

However, I was reminded of some of the fallout from the Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal. When A-Rod 'fessed up to an ESPN reporter, he also lit into the Sports Illustrated reporter who broke the story, accused her of trespassing and other nefarious stuff. The reporter and the magazine called the allegations absurd, asked for a public apology, because, as the magazine pointed out, what could be more important to a reporter than her credibility?

So, maybe the four candidates weren't fully aware of the impact of their words in their letter. But, unchallenged, they could have been taken as gospel and unfairly blemished the reputation of a reporter. Words have been plentiful in the debate over the handling of the sex assault case. They've been hurtful, too, even vulgar, and maybe things in general have gotten out of control as emotions run high.

Perhaps that's the lesson for all of us - politicians, journalists and everyday citizens - especially in this age of e mail, twittering and instant messaging: Take a deep breath, and think hard about what you're going to write. Pretend that it's going to be seen by everyone.

Because, today, that's fairly likely.

jdavis@dailyherald.com