Dear Boonville,
Mark McAllister didn’t ask to have his story printed in the BDN.
It wasn’t his idea to turn his story into a series, nor did he choose to place installments of that story onto the front page.
All of those decisions were formed in-house, and you, the readers, deserve to know why we made them.
We first published a story about a former Boonville resident who had been awarded a $600,000 settlement on Aug. 13. We were made aware of the story through a news release and a copy of that settlement as provided by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, an anti-abuse group.
The claims made in those documents took us aback. Allegations of sexual assault at a parish in Boonville? The claim was a serious one, and one we felt merited further
investigation.
As a journalist, it is my responsibility to ensure that I have pursued the facts about a situation and documented that so that others can know how I obtained that information.
After further investigation following that first story, McAllister’s name surfaced, and it appeared likely, based on the information we had gathered, that he was the person who had won the settlement.
After consulting with my newsroom colleagues and with our publisher, Deborah Marshall, I pursued an interview with McAllister. We spoke Aug. 21. The conversation lasted more than 2 hours.
Armed with 11 pages of notes from that conversation, we worked to vet the information he had given us. We requested court documents from New Jersey, sought interviews with representatives of the Archdiocese of Newark, the Diocese of Jefferson City and the Servants of the Paraclete. We spoke with attorneys and worked to verify claims made by various sources.
What resulted is the series of articles you have read. Our legal counsel reviewed each to ensure that we had made fair and accurate statements that did not go beyond the evidence.
We welcome your feedback.
Nate Birt is news and online
editor at the Boonville Daily News.
He may be contacted at (660) 882-5335 or
by e-mail at nate@boonvilledailynews.com.
