Don Lehman, let me show you how the Shiitake Awards works

Not every candidate who lands here is a big name or works for a big name company. This is Don Lehman from the Glen Falls Post-Star, serving the Adirondack Mountains of New York state. Since he is likely ignorant on the process by which he landed on the Shiitake-Worthy blog, I will give him some insight.

The Shiitake-Worthy blog processes nominations for the Shiitake Awards, which spotlights those who misuse sex offender hysteria for personal gain. In the story on an auto-accident, Don Lehman made it a point to bring out the past of one of the accident victims, who is a Registered Citizen. it is fairly amazing that a number of individuals rebuked Lehman; Don Lehman himself proclaims, "there seems to be inexplicable sympathy for sex offenders in some circles."

The following blog post is the reason why he lands on our Shiitake-Worthy blog. Not only did he feel the need to defend himself in a separate news article, his bias is showing. And that, my friends, is Shiitake-Worthy.

http://poststar.com/blogs/don_lehman/how-it-works/article_e730b3ec-7aeb-11e4-bf07-3f76340665c0.html

How it works
December 03, 2014 7:57 am

The first abrasive email of the day came in early Wednesday morning from a guy who was upset that the final version of the article on Monday night's tragic car-pedestrian accident in Argyle included background on the driver's criminal history.

The guy (a local church pastor, believe it or not) thought that I added that to the story "to get attention" and questioned my "character," believing that I just write whatever I want and throw it in the paper and online.

Since many readers seem to be ignorant about how the newsgathering and publishing process works, here is some insight.

Everything that gets in the printed version of the paper is reviewed by at least two editors, sometimes as many as four or five. So a reporter here can not just write what they want and get it published.

Not everything that we put online is read by an editor before it is published, occasionally breaking news items where we are posting from the field or after hours will go up without editing. Most of it is though, as Online Editor Doug Gruse manages our online content.

When we got an inquiry Tuesday afternoon from a reader wondering if the driver in the Argyle accident was the same ******* who is a Level 3 sex offender from Salem who served 14 years in prison for raping two young girls and sodomizing a third, I checked it out and found out it was.

Because there seems to be inexplicable sympathy for sex offenders in some circles around here, I brought the information to the attention of Editor Ken Tingley and City Editor Bob Condon to find out if they believed it should be included.

Both said the information should be included in the story, as it is background information on the driver in a highly publicized case. If he had been a vice president of General Electric, a professional badminton player or a clerk at Cumberland Farms, we would have included that instead.

As the reader whose initial email questioned whether the driver was the sex offender **** pointed out, in many states what **** did would have resulted in a life sentence in prison. In fact, NY state law has changed since his conviction and he could receive a life sentence for predatory sexual assault against a child.

He finished parole last year, and has to register his address every 90 days. He has not been charged in the fatal accident.

-- Don Lehman