From the Newsroom: Official reports must be shared

There are a few sports-related metaphors you could use to describe the role of the newspaper, especially when we write a controversial story. One is a referee. Another is an observant camera operator on the sidelines. Our overarching role at The Columbian is that of a watchdog, and here’s why that’s much closer to being behind the camera.

We ran a story online last week about a Fort Vancouver High School teacher and Clark College coach being suspended from work and under investigation by police and Clark College after he allegedly engaged in inappropriate behavior toward female athletes. It sparked a debate over whether we should play the role of a “referee” and even whether we should run the story.

More than a few times a year, people in power — those paid by taxpayer dollars, leading a nonprofit or maybe a publicly owned corporation — come under investigation. We almost always choose to be a “camera operator,” observing and reporting on an investigation rather than conducting it. It is not up to us to determine the validity of the allegations or to choose which ones to report. We cannot be the referee, determining the veracity of the allegations.

Here is a look into our policy on the investigations that we follow and report: We will wait for official documentation to become public before we write about it. We don’t write about rumors. In a healthy news ecosystem, if we weren’t to report on that document, another news publication would. In a less healthy news ecosystem, a blogger not bound by journalism’s ethical standards might create a viral post on social media, and perhaps never follow up with the outcome of the investigation.

But allegations about a public official filed in court or outlined in other public documents deserve to be shared in the community. It is our role to make the community aware and informed about what’s happening, rather than let the rumor mill spread gossip. Although these types of stories are sensitive, it’s important to write them. Parents want to know if their child’s teacher or coach is the subject of a police investigation, or why they are on leave. And having these sorts of stories come to light may prevent others from engaging in behavior that would lead to an investigation. This is at the core of our role as a watchdog.

We had inquiries from some readers who understood that we needed to write the story but thought it should include character witnesses to speak about what a good person the coach is. We don’t include testimonials from friends or relatives in our stories unless they are part of the official record, because they don’t invalidate accusations.

The same thing goes with allegations of misconduct. As our media law attorney has advised us, everything in the story should be from the official record.

Finally, the person who is the subject of the story deserves to be heard, if they wish. In this case, we called the subject of the investigation to give us a comment but did not hear back.