From Michael D. Smigiel, Jr’s Blog
The following letter to the Editor was sent to the editor of The Cecil Guardian. It is self explanatory. We shall see if the paper has the ethical standards necessary to admit and correct a mistake on their part.
Dear Editor:
On August, 5, 2010 The Cecil Guardian paper ran a front page article entitled “Candidate Kolodzey Distances Himself from Pipkin and Smigiel”. In the article, you quote Mr. Kolodzey as saying “he had aligned himself with Pipkin and Smigiel but had to leave them when he found their financial assistance in his campaign came with strings attached.” This is completely untrue!
I am very disappointed that your newspaper would fail to follow the most basic, ethical journalistic practice of calling those persons mentioned in a story to get their side of the story. If the reporter, Ms. Palko had done the bare minimum expected of any journalist and contacted those whom she was writing about, she would have learned that I have never met Mr. Kolodzey. I have never offered him any financial assistance. I have never offered to run his campaign.
At least, The Cecil Whig called to ask me if I had heard about what was said by Mr. Kolodzey. I received no such courtesy from Ms. Palko or anyone else from the Cecil Guardian paper.
The Cecil Whig reporter, Ms. Cheryl Mattix told me Mr. Kolodzey did not have any details to share about alleged meetings with me or financial offers of assistance. . . .
