People you think you know

I've always told my friends , "You don't want to see me coming." I guess they were not listening.

I was part of a team producing a story on a man charged with child pornography distribution. The issue? I knew him, he used to work for me, I hired him, I trusted him. In the story we showed; where he worked, the people he worked with and we showed his image.

The people he worked with were not shown in a bad light, they were unable to comment because of company policy. I understand that, I worked there. Their boss is supposed to protect them and speak for them and for the company. They were upset I shot them. Sorry but that's my job. If I did not pay my bill would I ask them to not disconnect me because we were friends? No. I did what I could to shorten the play time we gave that part of the story.

Since our story aired newspapers have come forward with his name, where he worked and they talked with people who worked with him.

Now a friend is not happy with what we did. It's my job, I did what I could to protect those who were not part of the story.

I ask myself did we do what we could do to check the facts? Yes! Did we confirm with RCMP? Yes! Did we confirm with education officials? Yes! Could I have gone where he lives at his parent's house? Yes, but I did not, it's not public knowledge. Could I have gone to where his direct boss works and lives? Yes, but I did not. Why not? Other reporters have called him. I did not because this person is a good friend of mine. Was this wrong of me not to go there? You make the call. The story was in the community where the guy worked, not where my friend works. We did call my friend's boss but we did not get any response. He is supposed to be the spokesperson for the company but he did not return our call. Had he returned our call we would have used him and we would not have shown the other people who worked there.

The company did the right thing and let the guy, who was charged, go. I guess the spokesperson is just not man enough to say the company did what it could to protect the people. He is not man enough to protect his employees, his friends. Why not? It's what JR would have done. Why? Because it's the right thing.

Who's the bad guy here?