Letter to the Editor

My letter concerns the story of “TBI Begins Inquiry on Allegations”. I noticed that the article did not seem to have a problem publishing the victim’s name and her “crimes”, but the other party’s name and his crimes were not mentioned.
Chief Deputy Billy Davis who is accused of assault and causing the victim to unjustly lost her job of 12 years; was sparted the embarrassment of his name being dragged through the mud in the paper by the mayor. Mr. “mayor” has already made up his mind without both sides of the story being told. The victim as already been found guilty by the mayor. As always, the woman is the “guilty party” in an assault!
I suggest Mayor Sain should keep his opinions to himself until he knows the rest of the story. He and others may have a few “secrets” in their closets also.
Brenda Fish
Bolivar, Tennessee
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Editor’s Notes: Here’s what we’ve got here. We have a civil suit filed against a citizen. Not a criminal charge. We did not name the defendant, because a crime has not been charged. Right now the accused in the suit is no different from anyone else in regards to this matter, in the eyes of the law…think about that.
The plaintiff filed the suit and her name is public, even if the details of the case are not.
If criminal charges were (or will be) filed, it would be the other way around. We would publish the name of the accused, but not the accuser.
If the accused is charged or has to defend himself in this case, he will get his day in court. And, his name in this newspaper.
As the highest elected official in the county, Hardeman County Mayor Jimmy Sain was asked to comment. He said the plaintiff’s name. If he had not, we would not have since we have not seen a copy of the lawsuit. If you have a problem with what was said about the accuser, realize it was a direct quote, not our opinion.
And by the way, we feel the actions of the other news outlets were irresponsible and a perfect example of what out-of-town media feels Hardeman County is good for: a spectacle designed to gain viewers without regard for ethics or personal destruction. These vultures are not journalists. At best, they are the National Enquirer of electronic news media. We’re guessing the reason the Bulletin Times wasn’t informed about the lawsuit until we heard it on TV is that whoever called them (the other media outlets who seemingly couldn’t wait to get here) figured we weren’t interested in merely scandal without some sort of criminal charges or evidence to go with it.
Yes, things have changed here at the Bulletin Times.
We’re not saying it is not a story. In fact, we printed it last week.
But we’ll report the news as we get it and we’ll write what people say to us and what we see people do. Nothing more and hopefully, nothing less.