Defending a friend

To the Editor:

When I went to college at the University of Montana-Missoula, I took Journalism 101. One of the first things they taught was that good journalism presents boths sides of a story so well, the readers can't tell which side the journalist is on.

I wish this paper and most of the American media could raise their standards to good journalism.

The Friday, Oct. 26 article about the Troy man being fined by the state auditor John Morrison was shameful, slanderous insinuations. The state took Mr. Bower to court and I went to the case concerning the Kalispell woman.

The state's case was so poorly done, their key witness, the Kalispell woman, destroyed their own case. The state made her out to be senile and unable to make proper financial decisions.

She was sharp as a tack and knew to a penny the amounts involved. She had to be present too, while they degraded her. The judge threw the case out, because it was obviously a lie. The state made false accusations.

So the state wisely withdrew the accusations about the Ronan woman.

Our taxpayers dollars at work.

Martin Bower was cleared of these accusations through our court system.

So now these fines and revoking of license of an innocent man puzzle me. The auditor's statements of wanting to protect unsuspecting seniors sound noble, but it seems to me Martin Bower (who is also a senior himself) is the one who needs protection from a vicious state office.

I wonder why none of this information ever made the article in the paper either? I don't suppose we'll ever see another article of apology either?

This letter probably won't even make the paper anyway, but I can sit silent no longer.

Karen Schertel

Libby