No regrets

Last week, we passed up what could have been our biggest breaking story ever from our small community in South Texas.
A friend alerted us Monday morning after the nine hostages, including three Aemricans, were taken off the Coast of Nigeria.
After speaking to Macon Hawkins family members and gathering all the details for a story, we honored the family’s wishes and withheld the story. They felt that releasing the details of the situation would only jeopardize any negotiations that were ongoing.
We continued to monitor the story through the week and kept in contact with family members. We contacted the Willbros Group Inc. in Houston.
After three days, the stories in the United States the stories disappeared from the front pages for more important stories. Those that did run still did not mention the names of the hostages. The family had hopes that authorities would be successful in obtaining the hostages' release.
But, on Thursday, the name of Macon Hawkins began to show up on Asian news sites on the Internet. By Friday, we were getting calls, and “big city” reporters were snooping around Wilson County.
We held our story until after the Associated Press released the story to all of America and all of the world at about 4 p.m. EST. There no longer was any reason for us not to publihs our story. Within minutes, we posted it online, still not disclosing all the information we had from family members.
While there are those who will turn their noses up at us for sitting on a story, we can live with that. As our news staff discussed whether or not to release the information, our conclusion was that the only reason we would do it was so that we could be first and “beat the big guys.” We didn’t think that was justification for possibly putting lives at risk.
As we told each other, we will be here long after the big guys have forgotten this story. It is our hometown, and we will have plenty of time to tell our story –- the real story and we will get it right.
So, go ahead. Call us the Podunk Newspaper of South Texas, We think we are in good company.

God Bless America
Elaine Kolodziej
Publisher
Wilson County News
http://wilsoncountynews.com
Floresville, Tx 78114