Letter to the Editor
Posted by Jeff vonKaenel
I usually enjoy being recognized at Rotary Club, but that was not the case last Monday during FBI Special Agent Drew Parenti's presentation. In the course of his remarks on international and home-grown terrorism, the Sacramento FBI agent included a side presentation on the issue of teenage prostitution. One slide showed an ad that ran in the News & Review three years ago with a photo of an underage teenage girl. This ad did run in the News & Review. But Agent Parenti failed to mention that we at the News & Review were startled to learn this had occurred and cooperated fully with law enforcement to help resolve the matter. As it turned out, the owner of the business had submitted both a model release form and a phony driver's license that showed the girl was twenty years old. Since this incident, this client has been barred from running ads in the News & Review. Just as a bar may inadvertently serve a minor with a phony driver's license, the News & Review ran a photo of an underage girl with a phony driver's license. We sincerely regret this incident and have since added safeguards to prevent this from happening again.
In the interest of full disclosure: I have been publicly critical of some FBI activities, before Agent Parenti arrived in Sacramento, related to the treatment of the Muslim community in the aftermath of 9/11. Agent Parenti and I have had disagreements about this. I genuinely respect what Parenti has done to improve relations with this community during his tenure, but I don't believe his remarks last Monday about the SN&R, which took one deplorable incident out of context, would meet Rotary's four-way test.
- Jeff vonKaenel
In the interest of full disclosure: I have been publicly critical of some FBI activities, before Agent Parenti arrived in Sacramento, related to the treatment of the Muslim community in the aftermath of 9/11. Agent Parenti and I have had disagreements about this. I genuinely respect what Parenti has done to improve relations with this community during his tenure, but I don't believe his remarks last Monday about the SN&R, which took one deplorable incident out of context, would meet Rotary's four-way test.
- Jeff vonKaenel