Today the 2008 Leadership Auburn Class is spending the day at the Auburn Journal offices, learning about interacting with the media.

We had a panel discussion this morning that included Bob Ripley from KAHI 950 AM radio, Don Chaddock from the Auburn Sentinel and me, representing the Auburn Journal and Gold Country Media.

The questions and comments from community leaders are often interesting.

Linda Maeding questioned why our editorials are unsigned. She was talking about the Our Views, published Wednesday, Friday and Sunday on page 4, our Opinion page.

I explained that at the top left of our Opinion pages, right above where it says Our View, it says Tony Hazarian, publisher and Deric Rothe, editor/general manager.

That’s because the buck stops with us and the views are ours. We don’t run editorials that Tony and I disagree with.

There are three other members of our editorial board: Michelle Miller-Carl, news editor; Andrew Diluccia, motoring, real estate editor and Gus Thomson, senior reporter.

Larry Au commented that the news pages of newspapers across the country are seemingly more interspersed with viewpoints, rather than just facts, than they were decades ago.

I pointed out that if someone’s opinion is quoted, that does not mean the newspaper endorsee that opinion. We do our best to quote both sides to a story, but that isn’t always possible. Sometimes one side refuses to comment, or in some cases is forbidden by law from commenting, such as during a trial with a gag order.

Scott Owens, a leadership member who works for the District Attorney’s Office said in Placer County they are trying harder to be pro-active when communicating with the media. That is great. Because if a court reporter covers a case, and one of the lawyers does not return repeated phone calls, that does not mean we hold the story. We go with what we have.

Other comments, such as Susan Texeira’s, revolved around how to get information into the paper. Texeira’s daughter is a gifted gymnast and she said she had trouble getting information about her in the Journal.

Anyone can call me personally with a news tip. My direct line is 530-852-0205. You can also upload your own stories and photos to Myopolis on our Web site, if you are a registered user. Registration just takes a few minutes and we cull Myopolis for stories we can further investigate ourselves or simply reverse publish.

The Leadership Auburn Class of 2008 graduates Friday night at Headquarter House. They are an impressive group who will be writing an opinion piece for the Journal this weekend.

The Chamber of Commerce Leadership Auburn program is a good one. We appreciate the opportunity to meet and share with these leaders and we thank KAHI and the Auburn Sentinel for participating as well.

We are all in this together.

We don’t always have to agree, but it’s important to communicate and try to understand each other. I also believe we should treat each other with respect, despite our differences.