Duke lacrosse Mom's letter, my comment now restored but McClatchy N&O editor's charges remain

I'm very happy to tell you the letter the Duke lacrosse Mom wrote to the McClatchy Company's Raleigh News & Observer's news columnist Ruth Sheehan has now been reposted at Sheehan's blog. You can find it here.

The letter is in slightly revised form, which Sheehan says is at the Mom's request.

My comment and those of others which Sheehan took down have now been restored. But they are not at the same post as the Mom's letter. You can find the comments hereat Sheehan's blog. She provides an explanation of how she inadvertently removed the comments.

I think getting the comments back to where the Mom's letter is will not be hard. It's very likely some technical glitch explains why they're not there now.

I've had a lot of correspondence with Sheehan last evening and this morning. She's new to blogging, and says that explains most of the problems that have come up.

Anyone can understand a new blogger having problems. Lord knows I have some, and I'm not new to blogging.

While the correspondence between us was a touch "rocky" at the start, it soon moved to a "let's find solutions" mode which helps explain the positive outcomes I'm sharing with you.

I'll say more about Sheehan's columns and blog posts tonight.

Right now I'll just say that in response to her work to correct her removal of comments, I sent her an email a while ago in which I said: "beau geste."

Two important matters remain and need attention.

First, I don’t doubt Sheehan when she says the Mom wished to revise slightly her letter. Sheehan explains why at her blog.

Therefore, tonight I'll go back to my earlier posts in which I published the Mom's letter as originally posted by Sheehan; and revise the letter to conform to how it now appears at Sheehan’s blog. I’ll place an “Update" message at the posts alerting readers to what I did and why.

In the circumstances, I think deleting the first form and replacing it with the second is justified by blog standards. It's also the least consideration due the Mom.

I'm confident most of you will understand and support what I’m doing.

The second matter that needs attention has to do with comments The N&O's executive editor for news, Melanie Sill, made at her blog regarding my efforts to find out yesterday afternoon what had happened to the Mom's letter as well as mine and other readers comments.

I’ll say more about all of that tonight or tomorrow in a separate post.

Those of you who can’t wait to find out what’s going on can go to Melanie’s blog post, "Our coverage was fair", and scroll down the comment thread.

You'll notice there a number of people named John making comments. They're not me. I’m always the one whose comment head includes www.johnincarolina.com.

I’ll be back tonight but it may be late. Thank you for staying with me on this story.

I’m going to report a lot tonight and again tomorrow, including a response to a Duke prof who is demanding the lacrosse team be shut down.

I'll also post on what so far seems to me to be the most comprehansive of the responsible blogs reporting and commenting on Duke, Durham, lacrosse, rape charge, and related lousy journalism.

Finally, I plan to post a narrative in the next few days concerning an episode that occurred more than a century ago that has some remarkable parallels to the current situation.