WHITE CO.—We just got a tipline call from someone who appears to be a little confused, and we thought you might be interested in it.
Here’s the call:
Now, here’s what’s wrong with her complaint: First of all, we learned about the OUI from a source in Franklin County MUCH earlier than just yesterday, when the post appeared. We weren’t sure about the identity of the “Jeff Pollard” in question, since “Pollard” is a common name in White County, and “Jeff” is a common name overall. So to be on the safe side, we did this little thing we call due diligence, and make numerous phone calls, including to Carmi City Hall and to a number we found that supposedly went to the mayor; as well, Ang sent an email to the mayor. The post was prepped and sat in the draft folder for more than a day while we waited for calls back, and finally, yesterday morning, Pollard returned Ang’s email. So the story was posted.
So let’s make this part clear: Pollard wasn’t in the process of “covering up” ANYTHING. WE found the OUI, and WE reached out to HIM. He returned our contact and was forthcoming…to which we say, GOOD FOR HIM. I can think of about a hundred public officials in our coverage area who wouldn’t have even bothered to return contact. I can think of another couple hundred who would have minimized it or begged us not to report it (let’s use Eric Gregg as a point of reference). What Pollard did made him stand out. He deserves every kudos he can get, his infraction of the law notwithstanding.
And to even link the whole thing with the tragic death of Emilie Turrentine, by anyone’s standards, is the height of repulsive behavior. Doesn’t matter a whit that they occurred in the same mulit-acre recreational area…one did NOT impact the other.
We don’t know how they do things up in Orland Park, Diane…but we don’t do it that way here. Two separate news stories, neither having anything to do with the other, and the mayor stepped up when we asked him directly about it. Maybe you should pass that kind of thing along to your papers up nawth…they, like “big” newspapers all over the country, seem to be hurting these days for readers.