Letter: Obvious inexperience at reporting

EDITOR,
I must say, I enjoy reading the Scotts Valley Press-Banner I receive in the mail much more than reading the Santa Cruz Sentinel. In fact, I discontinued the Sentinel a few years ago for a couple of reasons, monetary and lack of interest. I do look at it on the Internet now and then, but after looking at your Web site, I would say it, too, is better than the Sentinel.
That said, I feel that I have to make a couple of comments regarding the article about Mrs. Sutton (“Scotts Valley woman turns 102,” Oct. 16).
First of all, do you not have proofreaders or someone with a little bit of authority and common sense to approve what is published in the Press-Banner? If not, I think that is something you should perhaps consider.
It is pretty obvious that your reporter is fairly young and inexperienced as to what is appropriate to put into print. The article was fine, except for her reference to Mrs. Sutton’s obvious gas-passing problem, to put it very crudely and bluntly. I hope this woman has an enormous sense of humor and will chalk up the reference to her flatulence as immaturity and inexperience at reporting.
The fact that the reporter said, in spite of her problem, she still had her dignity — I doubt it now after reading this article. If it were me, my reaction would be, great, now everyone in the valley knows about my personal problem with flatulence.
This is obviously a very classy, intelligent human being that everyone will always remember possibly for her last interview, not because of her living to a ripe old age and leading a dignified productive life, but for the fact that she gassed out the interviewer during the entire interview.
I sincerely urge you to think about reviewing this reporter’s articles more closely before releasing them for publication.
If I were Mrs. Sutton and her son, I would really be pissed.