Bluestem's been posting about the unfortunate tale of underage drinking at a graduation party held on the property of Mille Lacs County Attorney Jan Jude, which has since captured headlines across the state.
Now Mille Lacs Messenger editor Brett Larson writes candidly about the party in Brett's blog — Kids and parents behaving badly. As it turns out, his own daughter attended the event, with her parents' permission. Larson writes candidly:
Full disclosure: My daughter was at the party. After I found out that there was drinking at the party, I talked to her as a parent, but not in my role as a journalist. To do so would be unfair to her and unfair to the story.
However, her name came up in a list of those in attendance, and I told our reporter who is working on it now that he can call anyone on the list. As an 18-year-old adult, it's her decision whether or not to talk to him, and whether or not to let him use her name.
Like the father quoted in the story, I too felt confident that my daughter would be safe because the party was taking place at the county attorney's residence. And I had no idea there was alcohol at the party until I talked to him on Tuesday, June 4, and the story was in process. [emphasis added]
There will likely be more on this issue in my column next week and in further coverage of the story.
As a community journalist, I have been switching hats from columnist/blogger to hard news reporter for 16 years now and will continue to do so as this story develops. And there is no conceivable way for me to drop out of this story because my daughter is a potential source.
In this day and age of minute-by-minute journalism, I also have no problem commenting on my own stories as they're developing. I've done it for years and will continue to do so.
I think it's a service to readers and results in more transparency about what we do as journalists, which is good for everyone.
Read the rest of the column, which details cyberbullying against the boy who was hospitalized, as well as the way the story unfolded for the paper. It's fascinating stuff, and Bluestem applauds the small town paper for pursuing the story. Greater Minnesota needs more of this, as well as citizens willing to speak as sources to the local press..
Because of the unsettling local cyberbullying, the Messenger may be taking up the issue in coming weeks. Larson writes that the paper will be looking at the issue of social host ordinances:
The story the Messenger broke Wednesday regarding an underage drinking party on the property of Mille Lacs County Attorney Jan Jude and Mille Lacs Tribal Police Investigator Russ Jude will lead to a series of Messenger newspaper and website articles over the next few weeks on underage drinking and the issue of "social hosting."
Good work.
Photo: Mille Lac County Attorney Jan Jude. It's not the first time Jude has been at the center of a media storm. Before her marriage to Russ Jude, she served under the name Jan Kolb. During her tenure, "an 11-year-old boy from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe was handcuffed, shackled and held overnight for failing to appear in court to testify as a crime victim," the Star Tribune reported in 2007. In 2006, the paper reported that a Kolb memo about the status of the Mille Lac Band of Ojibwe's band's land, written around the time that Indian veterans were heckled during a local parade, helped raise tensions in the county.
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