SS: First of all, they’re certainly on the record. We’re withholding their names from publication to protect their privacy because they are 18 years old, and they are gay, and their families don’t know. The key source in this case is identifiable in the event of litigation. So it’s a qualified confidentiality. But no, that really wasn’t a factor. Even if we had them by name, the allegation was spurious enough that it required additional investigation. And because of the transitory nature of Internet communication, there was really no backup documentation to support the scenario they described. We did have, and have published online, some subsequent dialogues between one of our 18-year-olds and the mayor that occurred after the young man had talked to us. But that was not sufficient to tell us that yes, these events happened and that contextually they make sense, and that this person is, in fact, the mayor. All we have is this individual’s word. So we felt an absolutely compelling need to confirm this beyond a question of a doubt before publication. And it wouldn’t have made any difference if we’d been able to use this young man’s name or not.


BM: Have you ever had a situation like this, or is this the first time you’ve had — I know it wasn’t a reporter, but a representative of the paper falsely representing themselves?


SS: This is my thirty-fourth year as a professional journalist. I’ve been a senior editor since the mid-1980s. This is the first time in my career that I’ve been in a circumstance that involved this sort of scenario. As an editor, it’s the first time I’ve had to make this call.


BM: If it weren’t for the hypocrisy angle here — the mayor has apparently taken positions that supported anti-gay legislation — would you have gone about this differently? Because otherwise you’re looking at something here that I think a lot of people would find inappropriate, but some people would say, “You’re looking at a 54-year-old man having consensual sex with a legal teenager, which is obviously inappropriate, but is a personal matter.”


SS: Certainly, I understand that. We believe otherwise. The key issue here — and the mayor acknowledges this, though he draws a different conclusion than we do — but he acknowledges that he’s offered benefits to individuals he’s contacted online. He’s offered gifts, personal favors, introductions, scholarships, and, in the case of our fictional student, an internship in his own office, in return for sexual favors. In our view, that is a misuse of office. It transcends private conduct and moves it squarely into the arena of official conduct, and it warrants investigation and publication.


The mayor is, as you might expect — and he’s quoted in our story as saying this — [thinks] that this is private behavior and that the offering of gifts and benefits, up to and including jobs in his office, does not constitute inappropriate conduct. In the end, citizens will have to decide how they fell about that.


BM: I can only imagine what it was like to go talk to the mayor and confront him with this stuff, and tell him, “Hey, we have this fake identity, we have all this information about you.” Was he uncomfortable? Were you?


SS: Well, I was not there for 99 percent of the interview. We did not want to feel that we were overwhelming the mayor. I met him in the interview room, and thanked him for coming, and shook his hand, and said that we appreciated his willingness to chat with us about something so important. He was calm. Nervous, but not agitated. And he was businesslike.


The interview was two reporters and a photographer. The mayor asked that we not take pictures, and so the photographer stayed in the room but did not shoot photographs; we honored that request. It lasted almost two hours. It was recorded. We have since posted the entire transcript of the interview online, because we want readers to judge for themselves the give-and-take between the reporters and the mayor.


The reporters in the room tell me that the mayor was progressively uncomfortable. He never lost his temper. His agitation never got the better of him. He frequently paused to gather his thoughts. He was surprised by some of what we knew. He acknowledged readily the online issues. He denied flatly the allegations of molestation in his past. And I think our story reflected all of that.


BM: What repercussions are you expecting from this? What’s happened so far?


SS: That’s a good question. And, except for what’s transpired, I don’t have a clue. We, of course, wondered for days and speculated what the repercussions might be, and finally decided that all we could do is print our story and our follow-ups and let events take their course.


The mayor [yesterday] issued a statement, which is just a few paragraphs long. He presented it in a briefing with the press but took no questions. … He issued an email to city hall staff and department heads apologizing for his conduct but vowing to continue in office. He resigned from the Boy Scout executive board in our region. And now we’re waiting to see the political ramifications.


BM: Have you heard from a lot of readers?