Letter to the Editor: Response to News versus Ethics
Dear Mr. Jobe,
I’m sure this won’t make it into the paper, but I felt like I must write it anyway. This is in response to the “News versus ethics” story you ran last week”. My first response is, please cancel my subscription, and remove our name from your mailing list. I no longer have a desire to see anything that you have to say. I kept my paper coming after Mr. Canty left out of respect to him. But enough is enough.
The two people you have slandered in that article are my sons, Sheriff Shane Doyle, and Editor Darren Doyle. Both of these men are hard working upstanding church going Christians that take their jobs very seriously. Their jobs allow them to work together in different situations, by chance, just as any other good reporter and good law officer would be. For you to accuse them of somehow colluding and breaking the law, when you did not even check to see if it was true, is inexcusable.
Sir, I do not understand what you could possibly have to gain from trying to crucify these two men with your words, but I know it will not profit you. Your only recourse at this point is to publish a public apology for your lies. I’m sure you expected one or both of them to come back at you and keep this controversy going, but they are bigger men than that.
You addressed two separate incidents that happened two years apart, then you implied that this is a pattern. The two incidents don’t have anything to do with each other! For the first incident, the public service announcement about the huffing accident, if that video kept even one of our youth from practicing this dangerous habit, would it not have been worth it? My sons did nothing to ruin their reputations. If this happened, these juveniles did it to themselves!
In the second incident where the teen was injured and charged with a DUI, again, my sons did nothing to damage this child in any way. Reporting the incident, as you know was well within the law, because in traffic accidents for youth over 16 years of age, they are treated as adults. If reporting this incident keeps even one more teen from drinking and driving, would it not be worth it? Teens just the same as adults must learn to be accountable for their own actions. Sweeping issues such as these under the rug makes them less accountable, and therefore more likely to repeat the offense.
In closing, I want to reiterate that I hope you consider a published apology for these untrue accusations. I hate to see any business go under. I do not wish harm on anyone. I believe you could repair some of the damage done by your words by doing this, and the “Edmonson News” could survive to report real news stories in the future.
Respectfully,
Stephen Doyle and Debbie Doyle
*The letter will be available in the April 11th edition print edition of the Edmonson News.
All due respect mam.you are the mother of your sons.and of course i understand that you would like an apology.my family for generations have been an upstanding and christian family in edmonson co.since it was first founded.my grandfather was a pastor and founded a baptist church here. Nothing against shane or his brother.but certain deputys have been given free rein to lie.and treat our citizens in manners that no other law inforcement in this country would ever except.whether it be by not knowing the facts by certain deputys misuseing their badges to lie and twist words to make themselves right from wrongs.i have been to 14 different states working. Have made a name for myself.by Gods will i accomplished alot that no other woman has and i am thankful.but i came home to live a happy safe life.to shanes benefit he should probably think for himself and realize that 80 percent of the county and others cannot be wrong.i m sure he is an upstanding man.but he must be blind from the goings on with a few of his men. A sheriffs duty is to protect his citizens.even from within his web.