Our View: Mindfulness drove this story decision

Sometimes, the press will protect the identity of a source in order to protect that person from retribution, scorn or embarrassment, or for some other reason. That doesn’t alleviate the reporter’s duty to verify the information, but the source’s name will be protected from the public.

But what happens when the person is actually willing to be named, but the editor decides to protect the source anyway?

That’s what happened with Pine Knot News editor Jana Peterson’s piece last week on the decades-old

sexual assault of a teenage student by a teacher and her basketball coach, Robert Pioro. Pioro was sentenced to 33 months in prison for the assault. The victim spoke at his sentencing — facing her abuser in open court — about her experience. Yet in her story, Peterson decided to refer to the victim by only her initials. Peterson explained her rationale within the story:

“People who went to school with her or knew her then will be able to put the story together, something she wants. But her name won’t be forever tied to Pioro on the internet,” Peterson wrote.

It was a decision that was not made lightly. Peterson discussed the issue with the survivor during an interview, and with staff member Mike Creger, an experienced journalist and former editor himself. Ultimately, Peterson decided that using K.M.’s initials better served justice, by making the story focus on the criminal act more than the person, and also making sure that story isn’t the first thing that pops up on a Google search for the rest of K.M.’s life. Peterson had offered the option of using a pseudonym, but K.M. declined, worried people might think she had something to hide, which she doesn’t. Using initials was a good solution: they identify enough so people who know her can figure it out — which K.M. wanted — but also protect her identity from random strangers.

We resist anonymous sources at every turn. Too much damage can be caused by those willing to publish unreliable anonymous accusations, and journalism is usually better off identifying its sources. Yet, in this case, we applaud Peterson’s leadership, empathy, sense of justice and mercy. In this case, justice was served. And our journalistic integrity remains intact.

While many editorials emerge from staff input, this editorial was written exclusively by Pine Knot News publisher Pete Radosevich.