“The truth is not a matter of opinion – it’s what the evidence shows.” – Carl Bernstein
MOUNT VERNON — Residents reading the Knox Pages story today on allegations of sexual abuse at Faith Life Church in New Albany, led by Gary Keesee and his wife, newly elected Knox County Commissioner Drenda Keesee, are likely asking that question.
We received and read every one of your Open Source inquiries and Facebook messages.
We took a little longer to publish because we wanted to be as accurate, fair and as complete as the facts allow at this time.
First is not always best
We began reporting on this complex story last week, led by veteran Knox County journalist Cheryl Splain. This kind of work takes time.
Phone calls. Interviews. Reviews of public records. More interviews. Reviews of notes. More interviews. Writing. Editing. Re-writing. Re-editing.
Rushing to publish can lead to mistakes – the kinds of mistakes that can negatively impact lives and cannot be taken back.
We could have published a poorly-sourced story last week that raised more questions than it answered. We chose not to do that because we take your trust seriously.
Instead, we chose to simply continue the reporting last week and over the weekend until we were satisfied that we’d met our standards. We chose to keep asking the questions. We reached out to trusted sources we have established over the years to provide you the best story we can produce today.
Rest assured, the story we published today is not the end of our work. Rather, it is just the beginning.
In fact, we have added resources to that reporting effort, which will result in additional stories going forward.
But, just like today, we will not publish a story before it’s ready to be published.
Until it’s accurate.
Until it’s as complete as it can be.
Until it’s fair.
That’s the standard you hold us to as Knox County’s local news provider.
We thank you for that.