Paper's correction missed the mark

I just wanted to send a quick letter to express my disappointment with the correction the Daily Bee made Nov. 9 to an article published on the front page on Thursday, Nov. 8.

In the article on Nov. 8 titled, "Program helps community see i2i on drugs," the reporter incorrectly identified a person who in the article said he was a "self-described drug user" and who also made a controversial remark about law enforcement. The article incorrectly identified my father, Mark Stevens, as the person who made those remarks. This was damaging to my father as he received many calls from friends and members of the community asking him to explain the statements the paper had quoted him as saying. Not to mention he has never done/taken illegal drugs.

Upon further investigation into how he was incorrectly identified, we were told that it was a case of sloppy/lazy journalism which had been addressed. That in itself is disappointing but we understand that mistakes happen. He was told that there would be a retraction/apology on the front page of the paper today. When I read the "correction," I was highly disappointed. Not once did it mention anything about the incorrectly identified person "Mark Stevens" nor was there an apology to the affected person "Mark Stevens." The correction article left the impression that "oops we made a mistake here is the information that should have been there … no harm done." That correction definitely missed the mark (no pun intended).

BRENT STEVENS

Sandpoint