Op-Ed: Our integrity was questioned. This is our response.

At Davidson Local, since our inception, our mission has always been to service our community as a media outlet that is thorough, reputable, fair, advanced, timely, innovative, proactive, unbiased, and trustworthy. Recently, at a city council meeting, our integrity was thrust into the spotlight. Since the questioning was public, our response is, too.

Last month, we contacted our first intern at DL, Sidney Briggs (who is now a sophomore at Wellsley College in Massachusetts) to inquire about her willingness to spearhead a project she’d previously led. Before she graduated high school, Sidney approached us about utilizing DL as a tool for political candidates to share their platform. As a first-time voter, she was excited about the opportunity to exercise her right. Previously, Sidney has received an award from The North Carolina Press Association for her work with Davidson Local and served on a panel alongside publisher Antionette Kerr discussing the importance of local election coverage.

In 2022, Sidney asked if she could submit questions to candidates about various topics related to the office they were seeking. Without a doubt, we knew this was a great initiative. Sidney retrieved contact information, sent out emails with questions, organized the responses and headshots and submitted them to us for publication. The response to her idea was overwhelmingly positive. So, why not run it back? This summer, Sidney submitted questions to candidates running for Mayor of Lexington, Lexington City Council and Lexington City Schools Board of Education. And once again, she delivered.

However, there was one candidate who had a differing opinion about the execution of the task.

On September 8, the day we published answers from city council candidates, we received an email from Jack Youngblood who expressed Sidney never sent him questions or contacted him. After reviewing our process, we replied to his email with proof of the email Sidney sent to him on August 18 with the questions. His response to us was that if it went into his spam folder, he just deletes all spam. Youngblood also claimed the screenshot didn’t show an email was sent on August 18 with questions.

We attached the proof, again, to another email with a detailed description of what was visible in the photo. Youngblood stated he never received it and reiterated he deletes emails in his spam folder.

When Sidney’s email was sent all candidates were provided with the same submission deadline for their questions. If there were answers that weren’t received by the deadline from any candidate, this was noted in each article.

Believing we’d handled the situation in reputable fashion as it relates to the facts, we moved on to the next items on our list yet Youngblood wasn’t done. At the Lexington City Council meeting on September 11, Youngblood spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting. There, he let it be known that he was in attendance to “set the record straight.” Davidson Local was accused of not doing our due diligence as it relates to contacting candidates. Youngblood asked what methods we used besides email to contact him; declared we could’ve sent a letter or called him; told us we could’ve left him a voicemail.

At Davidson Local, integrity will always be at the forefront of everything we do. We’re committed to consistently producing a product that is rooted in this characteristic. We’re not perfect and never will claim to be. When we get it wrong, we admit it. And when the validity of what we have confirmed to be factual is questioned, publicly, we have an obligation to stand, firmly, upon our foundation.

And that is what we are doing.

As a hyperlocal news source, co-founded by two natives who honed their chops during the days of printed newspapers, newsrooms and delivery drivers, we will continue to honor those who raised us to be thorough, reputable, fair, advanced, timely, innovative, proactive, unbiased, and trustworthy – just like Davidson Local is.

And always will be.

* As we get closer to the municipal election, we will re-run all answers from political candidates. Those who didn’t respond before the previous deadline will have the opportunity to submit their answers for publication.