Thomas goes on to attack much of what the Journal has published, accusing the series’ writer of a “lack of understanding and lack of research,” “unfounded innuendo,” and “ignorance of the legal process.” He vents about incidents the Journal has already corrected, and reaches a rhetorical climax in his penultimate paragraph when he asks six successive questions about what the paper failed to include in its reporting. Some of those questions could have been answered if Thomas or his partners had commented initially, you think, but all in all Thomas makes some points.

Now you are seriously disturbed. Why was this man given free rein to trash your newspaper’s work? Does this mean the paper stands behind its previous stories, or could Thomas actually be right? And isn’t the Journal supposed to sort this out for you? You are simply confused. Who are you to believe?

It turns out you, the reader, were not told something very important. In a note to the newsroom staff last Friday, the Journal’s editor warned that “a letter of rebuttal” from Michael Thomas was coming on Sunday. Although the editor still believed the SonRise stories were “fundamentally sound,” and despite the corrections already published, “Thomas still has sought an opportunity to write a letter to our readers responding to those articles,” he wrote, “and in exchange for signed releases from him, his son and the company protecting us from any future litigation, we have agreed to publish his letter on the front page.”

“I can understand that the staff might want more explanation from me on why a front-page letter would be agreed to in this particular case, but there are times when a situation is not improved upon by elaboration,” the editor added. “Our attorneys have recommended we take this step, and I have accepted their recommendation.”

But you, the loyal Flint Journal subscriber, do not know any of that. You just know that you’ve never seen anything quite like this in a newspaper. Both sides have been damaged, and the Journal’s series turned out as messy as SonRise itself.

You throw the Sunday Journal out the window, and take a look at Monday’s front page, where a big story headlined “Flint Youth Idol” awaits. That’s better. Maybe it is best to pretend “SonRise & Fall” never happened.

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