[Winona] Lack of honest reporting in Winona

[Kfsjsljbfish at aol.com]

In keeping with my thought earlier, I wrote to the  WDN and received this 
response.In 2004, one of my Girl Scouts was featured in  Neighbors mentioning all 
these community service things she had done and never  giving myself or any 
hint of Girls Scout in the article.  Her mom sounded  like Superwoman, and she 
had never been involved with any of the events.   The  mom said she had called 
WDN with the  correction and my husband who reads the entire paper every 
morning never say  it.  I now only submit pictures od community service in Winona 
to the  Post.   They ALWAYS print them.
Kathleen Giebel 
Dear  Ms. Giebel, 
Thanks  for your note and concern. It’s hard for me to address something 
specifically  when I don’t have more details. That being said, let me  speak 
generally to your concerns. 
First,  we’re a community newspaper. That means we want to cover many 
different groups,  yours included, I imagine. It is always a choice to talk to the 
newspaper or  not.  
If  there is a fear of being misquoted, I can assure you there are things 
reporters  can do to mitigate that concern; for example, running quotations by a 
source and  double-checking facts. However, in my experience, I’ve found that 
oftentimes the  fear of being misquoted is really an excuse for not wanting to 
talk. We do, in  fact, make mistakes, like any organization, like any group 
of human beings. When  we make errors, we correct them. 
There  is an old saw in our business that says the two pastimes of any 
community are  baseball and picking on the local newspaper. I am positive things 
said about us  in your meeting weren’t flattering. It goes with being a 
newspaper, covering  controversial subjects and being the rough draft of history, as 
one person put  it. I also know that if you want to find mistakes you can in our 
paper or the  New York Times. You can also find positive, uplifting and 
helpful information,  too. It seems to be a matter of perspective. 
We  may have an image problem. However, our circulation numbers consider to 
see  growth when others in the industry are declining; our Web site is the 
number one  electronic media news source in our area; and this year, we’ve 
produced more  locally generated stories than any other year in our 151 year history. 
  
Thanks  again for your concerns. Please let me know if there’s anything else 
I can do  for you. 
Sincerely, 
Darrell 
Darrell  Ehrlick 
Editor,  Winona Daily News 
Dear Staff,
  I was at a meeting last night where it was mentioned the group has  
repeatedly been asked by your staff for interviews and repeatedly turned it down  
because the general consensus was they would be misquoted.  I was the only  one 
of the 10 to admit to being a subscriber and none of the descriptive  words of 
your paper were positive.
  I think you have an image problem.
   Sincerely,
  Kathleen Giebel  
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