‘Over the line’ ADVERTISING ‘Over the line’ Many people in our community and throughout the island find it sad, indeed, that the Tribune-Herald recently found it necessary to publish the text, including the vulgarity, that has become so commonplace in
‘Over the line’
Many people in our community and throughout the island find it sad, indeed, that the Tribune-Herald recently found it necessary to publish the text, including the vulgarity, that has become so commonplace in our society (“Six players sidelined,” Oct. 15).
Your reporter went far over the line of good journalism to dig for the names of the individuals involved when the school chose not to do so.
Your reporter admittedly found out their names by using the numbers on their jerseys. Then your editor/publisher allowed not only their photos, but their names to be published for all to see, not taking into consideration the fact they are juveniles. Not even our police nor judiciary system allow that except in special cases.
While I do not condone what those kids did, I would remind them that indiscriminate use of Facebook and similar (social media) have gotten a lot of people into a lot of trouble.
For our newspaper, I would say the article smacked of creative, sensational journalism.
Yes, I am well aware of freedom of the press. However, discretion also should apply. In this case, none was applied!
There is a lot going on in our community that probably deserves headlines, photos and names, but it sure wasn’t this!
Shame on you. The Tribune-Herald is supposed to be a newspaper, not a tabloid.
Ron Baptista
Mountain View
Bad behavior
This is a response to Abigail Parel’s comments regarding the dismissal of her son from the Honokaa varsity football team (“Parent responds to penalty,” Tribune-Herald, Oct. 17).
It is every parent’s responsibility to prepare their children for life. One lesson is bad choices have consequences.
Parel is throwing away an opportunity to teach this to her son by directing her anger at the school administration. He is not 5 years old. He is a young adult who should know what he and his friends did was wrong.
If he were my son, I’d make him apologize to the school interim principal for his poor judgment and breaking school policy; to the coach for showing such a lack of sportsmanship; and to his team for letting them down.
And then I’d ground him. It’s called tough love.
And, yes, I am a mother who raised a teenager to have good values.
I do think the Tribune-Herald showed poor judgment in making this a front-page story.
Márta Lépes
Volcano
