The WISH-TV story showed a building with no visibl...

2014-05-05T06:15:47.386-05:00

The WISH-TV story showed a building with no visible repair work on it. Your article talked about new windows, while the WISH-TV article showed broken windows and other visible signs of disrepair to the building.

Your description of An's injuries makes it seem like they were recent injuries. Reporters have been trying to reach him for months without success. This building has sat there without any work on it for years. The property taxes haven't been paid, and it was ordered sold at a sheriff's sale. It completely overlooked all the conflict of interest issues the Chronicle-Tribune raised in its reporting, which are of serious concern from the public's standpoint since public funds were invested in the project.

Did you ask Mr. An if he has entered into a contract to sell the building to Bill Reece?

This is Doug Roorbach. I wrote the story in The Ne...

2014-05-04T19:38:41.113-05:00

This is Doug Roorbach. I wrote the story in The News Herald, which I own. Thanks for quoting from the story. My only objection is your characterization of the story as a "whitewash." In what way? We got access to both the building and Mr. An and reported what we saw and what he said. We made no claims as to whether what he said was true; we let our readers decide. We brought in an independent expert, Mr. Dunn, who had been in charge of that very building for 12 years, to tell our readers what he saw. He did so. We did not (and do not) offer an opinion in our news story. We reported.

Mike's column was his opinion, but he didn't make claims about Mr. An's statements, just about being back in the building where he had worked for so many years.

Not exactly a whitewash, so your characterization is baseless.

Three other things worth pointing out: 1. Mike is my brother, a fact which we have pointed out in our pages repeatedly, so hardly a secret 2.) When we met with Mr. An, his face was bruised and his teeth were broken. He said he had fallen down the steps the week before, so it is quite believable (at least to me) that he was, in fact, in the hospital when WISH-TV called him to ask for comments. Finally, 3) we talked to Mr. An before WISH-TV's story, so implying he emerged as a result of the story is not accurate.

Thanks for reading The News Herald, and please encourage your readers to do so.

Comments on Advance Indiana™: Korean Businessman Re-Emerges As WISH-TV Is Set To Air Investigative Story On Marion's Missing Millions

The WISH-TV story showed a building with no visibl...

This is Doug Roorbach. I wrote the story in The Ne...