Campaign flier used old Appeal articles, but the newspaper takes no sides

Right up front, we want to make it clear that we’re writing about a recent campaign mailer, but are taking neither side in the race concerned.

There has been some confusion and we’ve taken some calls about a campaign flier produced by the Committee to Elect Dennis Hauck Sutter County Sheriff. The single sheet handbill, printed on both sides, was inserted into the Appealdemocrat on Monday. Additionally, the content of the flier is chiefly snippets of news stories authored by Appeal-democrat reporters and published in past print and electronic editions.

The material refers to a hazing incident in which a Yuba County deputy was attacked by other deputies. The victim is quoted as he refers to Hauck’s opponent, Brandon Barnes.

The victim sued and was awarded $430,000. Barnes, it is reported, was required to pay $7,500.

A series of reports by the Appeal-democrat are referred to. There’s no doubt the incident and lawsuit were reported and the stories quoted from are among those archived on the Appeal-democrat’s website.

But we’d like it to be clear to readers that the Appeal-democrat did not participate in the production of the flier. The stories quoted are ours; but that’s as far as it goes.

The Hauck publicist also dummied up representations of Appeal-democrat front pages, featuring big headlines over the stories quoted from our archives. Those are not actual front pages. They are illustrative. Permission was not given to use our nameplate or be represented in the flier.

That doesn’t mean we’re against Hauck. Doesn’t mean we’re for or against either candidate.

Like it or not, management of the Appeal-democrat has mandated that we not make endorsements. We’re not working, from the editorial and news side of the A–D, for any candidate or issue. That all gets tricky to understand ... we don’t make editorial endorsements; we’re not printing letters from people endorsing or criticizing candidates; but endorsements can be made in paid advertisements. And we do allow people to write about election issues, but not about specific candidates.

We reserve the right to conduct research and reporting on any issues that rise to the level of an actual news report – the question comes down to whether the issues raised are important and provable and truly revelatory.

But so far, most of the backand-forth we’ve seen is just that – the back and forth you’d expect from candidates who want to make themselves look good and their opponents less good. It’s possible readers might see more reporting on the above issue ... but it won’t entail the endorsement of one candidate over another.