Response to Jungo column
By Roberta Rothwell
Thank you, Rudy Herndon, for making my point. While I was admonished for "failing to take the time to verify her facts," I suppose I must have missed the Humboldt Sun's attempts to contact me about my sources or facts."
I know you quibble about my using the word "lawsuit" to describe this action, but are you aware that The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary of The English Language (1987 edition) defines the word "lawsuit" as follows: "n. a claim brought for judgment before a lawcourt." Isn't this "recouping" (your word) a "claim" by Recology that is being brought before the "courts," asking for a "judgment" of $611,000?
And since you also have a problem that I used the word "new," let's see how the same dictionary defines this word. "New - adj. - made, discovered, known, heard or seen for the first time." Hmmm - sounds like this recent, never-existed-before claim brought before a court of law could actually be called a ... "new lawsuit."
When Mr. Hladek showed the paperwork to me, it sure looked like a lawsuit. You know, Party of the 1st Part v. Party of the 2nd Part, etc. The bundle was about ΒΌ" thick - so it sure felt like a lawsuit. And since it was an action brought forth by a bunch of lawyers -it sure smelled like a lawsuit to me.
Before I submitted my Guest Commentary to the Humboldt Sun, I phoned Mr. Hladek and read him my comments, asking if I had the facts correct and he replied that I did. So much for not taking the time to check out my facts, Mr. Herndon. Can you really say the same about yours?
I have noticed that when the Humboldt Sun gets facts or names incorrect, they always print a small blurb entitled "Correction - the Humboldt Sun regrets..." Is this not the same courtesy that you would give to a "Guest Commentary?" I always thought that the polite "Host" treats his visiting "Guest" better than he would treat family. If you had contacted me directly, I might have conceded that "new lawsuit" could be construed in the wrong way. But you and the Humboldt Sun did not even afford me this option - which I wouldn't have used anyway, since I still don't feel I used the terms incorrectly.
You also wrote: "However, the routine motion to recover legal expenses is not the major legal development that she seems to think it is." This calls for a value judgment or a personal perception. I don't know about you and how big your bank account is, but $611,000 is quite a big deal to me, especially if it takes away from other more needed projects here in Humboldt County.
As far as you "speaking to John Frankovich" and he agreeing with everything you said, I just got off the phone with Mr. Frankovich myself. He told me that he never directly spoke to you. Rather, you asked "cryptic questions," you never told him that anything was going to print and, as you admit, you two played phone tag. Is that really your definition of having a conversation with someone?
Correction - Roberta Rothwell defended the Humboldt Sun, its Editors, Writers and Staff for years when other town-folks called it a useless newspaper. She regrets her error in judgment.
Roberta Rothwell is a resident of Winnemucca.
Editor's note: Roberta Rothwell originally submitted a guest commentary that was critical of the Humboldt Sun for not having a story on the issue mentioned above. Because this is part of staff writer Rudy Herndon's beat, he felt it was necessary to respond and wrote a column critical of Roberta's piece. This is Roberta's response to that column.
As managing editor, it is my job to decide whether or not submissions appear on the opinion page. In this case, I approved Roberta's original piece, Rudy's response and this piece.
Per our company policy, I did contact Roberta before the original piece ran to verify she was the author. However, I did not inquire about the content. I have expressed to both Rudy and Roberta that I could have brought them together to discuss the issue further before the subsequent submissions appeared to avoid the hard feelings that ensued.
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