Cutler

There is one thing I have come to learn in my time in this business — newspapers make mistakes.

That admission is something I have struggled with for 20 years as an editor, news editor, sports editor and reporter and it still is something that keeps me awake at nights — even though mistakes are ultimately inevitable, they are the worst part of this job. Mainly because it means telling a source, an athlete, a city official or a business, “I’m sorry, we did not get it right.”

We strive to get it right in every issue, and when we don’t, it hurts personally and professionally, because we have let our readers, our general manager and the other employees here at the Wallowa County Chieftain down. It also means I have to admit we are wrong, and as anyone who knows me can attest to, I hate being wrong.

It seems that running corrections comes in waves, following the old saying, “When it rains it pours.” It has poured here for the past few months.

The serious point of all of this is newspaper people, writers, reporters and editors are instantly accountable every single day. I try to hold myself to a pretty high standard but I make mistakes.

As a leader, however, setting the example is key and more than anything we have to be accountable for the errors in this paper. Our business, our reputation is built on credibility. You need to trust that what we report is accurate, and if we do make mistakes — whether they are on the front page or in sports or in some other section — you also need to trust that we will make them right.

None of this lengthy explanation makes standing up to be accountable very fun. It never is. But being a leader is not about power, but about responsibility and respect. I have to have respect for our readers and I have to take responsibility.

There is a silver lining to all of this. The newsroom staff takes these mistakes as personally as I do, which beats the alternative — having a staff that doesn’t care.

Have we had our issues here and there? Of course, but we’re far better now than at any point since I’ve been here, and that is because we do take responsibility and deal with issues in a forthright manner. Mistakes happen. In every facet of life. They’ll happen with a newspaper. But as long as those who make the mistake can take responsibility — almost always in the form of a correction — immediately, the sacred bond with the reader will not be broken. An editor I worked for once told me that readers will put up with a lot of things as long as they feel the paper is being straight with them.

That means taking responsibility.

Promptly.