Patriot EIC Sexton has a long j'accuse against the Daily Cal's handling of the Bates story. Most interesting part: someone in the News Room is apparently leaking to the Patriot... a big no-no.

What’s more, when the news team returned to the newsroom on November 4th, after a cursory investigation of the crime, they speculated that my Republican friends and I had orchestrated the whole thing to try and bring down the liberal Bates, a source inside the newsroom tells the Patriot.

Regardless of Sexton's conclusion-- probably correct!-- that the Daily Cal screwed up by not printing the Bates accusation, any article about the Daily Cal's handling of the Bates story that doesn't mention the big glaring influence that Mr. Sexton was is useless.

In subsequent conversations, the editors have stated fear of a libel suit also factored into the decision. But even the most freshman reporter knows the defense for libel is that reported information be “provably true.” Certainly that four witnesses said they saw Bates do it was provably true. As a police officer said on Nov. 4th, rarely are there four eyewitnesses to a crime.

In not reporting Bates’ theft of the newspapers in a timely manner, the Daily Cal let its readers down, and lost credibility as a source of reliable, timely news.

Why doesn't Mr. Sexton mention his own role in the Daily Cal's decision? It doesn't necessarily reflect badly on him, or largely distract from his charge that being Republican was a prime factor. Certainly it's a complicating factor, but considering the big role it played, it needs to be mentioned for the story to be correct...Email This Post!