I questioned the Sacramento Bee about the omission of the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in today’s anniversary date. They have my To Hell and Back review. These are the emails exchanged. A good lesson here that the squeaky hinge gets the oil…thanks for the oil can, Mr. Lebar.
Ms. Kaskugawa,
Joyce Terhaar forwarded me your email about the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Of course, you’re right — we should have had a story in the paper, even a simple one acknowledging the anniversary.
This was a little more than an oversight on our part. That is, I think we sometimes outthink ourselves and were looking for a better story than the ones we had. In that search for the better story we neglected to run any story at all. We could have done a local story, as well, but were limited in a variety of ways, and with details I won’t bore you with.
Our plan is to run a story in Friday’s paper on page 3B. Also, online, we did run Associated Press stories about the anniversary. I’ve included those links here.
I apologize for the poor execution on our — my — part and appreciate you taking the time to connect with us, to impart the significance of what a story means to you and others in our news pages. Your disappointment translates into thoughtful response here, even if a day late.
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Dear Mr. Lebar,
I can see how busy you are, even misspelled my name. ( I say this with humor, not sarcasm.) Interestingly, many Japanese changed their names to
become more Polish sounding after Pearl Harbor to avoid the Hey Jap attacks.
I appreciate your email. Thank you.
On the same note, nothing was said about the Voters Rights Act 50 years ago. See, I truly believe there are certain parts of
our history that must not be forgotten so we can educate our young so they can use this history to appreciate and honor our present and to know
what our ancestors have done for us so we can continue this tradition of taking care of our future generations.
*****
Well, that’s embarrassing — but, yes, I’m immersed in planning and executing news coverage tonight. I think I’m introducing more errors rather than preventing them….My apologies. I realized earlier today I sent a note and misspelled my own name. My mother would be mortified. My father, he would have said, well, you make a mistake, own it.
Best,
Scott
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Dear MR. Lebar
My mother would have said, “Be nice.” So we’re even. Thank you.
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