To Frankie Gallagher and Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital management,
Thank you for communicating your concerns regarding our recent article on the San Benito Health Care District’s March 23 public meeting. We understand the hospital is experiencing challenging times which can lead to public criticism while the board of directors attempts to find solutions. It’s difficult to face criticism, and we understand that when strong emotions are involved it’s easy to view news stories as a personal attack.
It’s BenitoLink’s responsibility to report on the status of the hospital and include the opinions and feelings of residents on that issue. This is particularly the case when those meetings are not recorded or available to residents online.
BenitoLink staff believes it is important to respond to your public letter as it’s an opportunity to help readers understand the editorial process of a news story. There is no evidence of editorializing.
In your rebuttal, you state six objections to the article “Hollister residents say Hazel Hawkins Hospital lacks transparency,” including the statement that the article makes false claims, that it contains “significant editorializing” and that it relies on resident Robert Bernosky’s statements.
The reporter, John Chadwell attended the public meeting and reported on the four speakers who commented on what they described as the hospital’s lack of transparency.
No claims were made by the reporter, as all information presented is either quoting a speaker or directly attributed to a speaker.
Regarding your claim that the reporter is editorializing, Chadwell does not give any personal opinions on HHMH. He does make an observation, which is immediately supported with quotes from speakers. His statement that CEO Mary Casillas and Robinson “were models of the non-transparency their critics have claimed” is part of a paragraph in which Chadwell provides an example of the hospital staff not providing information that was requested by their own director Devon Pack and the public.
Lastly, your claim that Chadwell relies on statements from Bernosky is also inaccurate. The article uses direct quotes, which can be identified by quotation marks, or provides attribution from all four speakers (Robert Bernosky, Roxy Montana, Elia Salinas and Dr. Nazhat Parveen Sharma) who commented on the topic. A fifth speaker was not included in the article because the comment, which was also a complaint about the hospital, was off-topic.
BenitoLink’s mission is “to encourage public dialogue to foster an engaged community.” To that end, we strive to have open lines of communication with everyone in the community including all public agencies. This no-barrier policy means all residents have an opportunity to publish on BenitoLink or contact us about potential errors. This policy welcomes articles that are both critical and/or appreciative, just like this one written by Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital.
Signed BenitoLink Co-Editor, Content Manager Noe Magana and Co-Editor, Executive Director Leslie David.
John’ Chadwell’s full article is available here.
Hazel Hawkins’ full response is available here.