Our Views: The Chronicle newsroom, Joe Kent and the truth

• Editor’s note: EVERY District 3 voter needs to read this editorial before they cast their ballot in November! Click here

Excerpt from The Chronicle Editorial Board:

A few months ago, The Chronicle’s publisher wrote an opinion piece stating that Republicans seem to think that The Chronicle newsroom is pro-Democrat and the Democrats think the newsroom is pro-Republican. What’s different about The Chronicle news staff from a lot of the media nationally is that they aren’t on either team. They are not writing stories to help one side or hurt the other. 

Joe Kent doesn’t get this yet. 

He’s used to being warmly received by one portion of the media and attacked by the other. He wants The Chronicle to be on his side. But our newsroom’s staff isn’t on a side. Our newspaper isn’t Joe Kent’s friend or his enemy. We aren’t here to help him or to hurt him. Our journalists are here to report what happens and give all sides of the story.

And that’s what happened last year when our staff was covering a Kent campaign event in Onalaska.

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The Chronicle news staff reported on the exchange accurately [March 11, 2022]…We know this is what was said in this exchange because our staff recorded it. You can listen here.

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Today, Americans are used to seeing the media take one political side or the other and then publish articles supporting their partisan bias. Those stories are hostile to one side. But the truth about what candidates from both parties say and do is almost always a mix of positive and negative. Our March 2022 story was the truth.

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It’s Kent’s job to explain his views. It’s The Chronicle’s job to accurately report what he says. And that is exactly what we did here. We presented what he said at that meeting so the public can decide.