Gainesville (GA) Times
Gainesville Times executive editor Mitch Clarke was arrested for driving under the influence and briefly jailed, but his paper didn’t report it until Sunday — in his column. “While my supervisors were told immediately, I didn’t tell my staff about it until last week,” he writes. “I should have told them. And we should have reported this news to you in the newspaper.” He explains why the story didn’t run:
This newspaper’s policy is not to run DUIs unless they involve public figures. My supervisors made the call that I didn’t meet that standard. In hindsight, I could have — and I should have — insisted that, as editor of this newspaper, I am a public figure and that we run the story.
The editor gets hit hard in the comments section. One post:
I do not know the motivation for your decision to finally print details of your arrest (personal guilt or getting ahead of a story about to become public) but better late than never. I just hope you apply that standard to ALL public officials in the future.
Does it bother your paper you felt compelled to report the Damon Evans story within hours of [the University of Georgia athletic director’s] arrest. Down to the color of woman undergarments for the sake of a salacious story.
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