Reading about St. Luke's lawsuit against the News Tribune and two staff members, I couldn't believe my eyes: One of the reporters named was Mark Stodghill ("St. Luke's sues Duluth News Tribune over reporting on surgeon," Sept. 20).
I have known Stodghill for more than 40 years in my capacity as an educator, coach and sports information director at Hibbing Community College. He was a star basketball player at Inver Hills Community College, and after leading his team to a blowout win over my Cardinals, his comment to me was, "Sorry Coach, our size was too much for your kids, but they never gave up." He already was speaking the truth. As sports editor of the Hibbing Daily Tribune, Stodghill had many interviews with me as a coach and I never found him turning my words around to add any controversial edge to the article.
In my final interview with Stodghill in his work as a journalist with the News Tribune, he covered a problem we at the college were having with one of our athletic programs, which had been drawing a lot of media attention. I soon found out some reporters were not very ethical in their approach to the story. Stodghill, in his approach, was the only one I would talk to. His approach was simple: He would ask me about the details and always read the comments back to me for accuracy. His article the next day was always correct, word-for-word, as we had discussed it.
Stodghill is highly reflective of first-class journalism and a credit to his profession. Shame on others who doubt his credibility.
Dick Varichak
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Hibbing
