An Open Letter to the Stowe Reporter

An Unfounded Accusation

In the 20 years I’ve lived in Stowe I’ve always been proud of our hometown paper. I have often defended the Stowe Reporter and did so again last week on our Vermont Ski + Ride Facebook page and elsewhere.

However, when The Stowe Reporter alleges that an article I wrote,  The Carpenters Pledge to Rebuild the Stone Hut  “went out of its way to criticize the Stowe Reporter,” I have to respond.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

As stated in my Feb. 20 article, Vermont Ski + Ride had been working on a story about rebuilding the Stone Hut for several weeks. We had been in contact with both the the state and the Carpenters since mid-January and were aware of the family’s intent to contribute “whatever it takes” to rebuild.

In no place in our article did we criticize the Stowe Reporter, nor would we have any motivation or desire to do so.

We did, in fact, link to the Stowe Reporter’s piece, credited that paper for breaking the news and then went on to tell the part of the story that we had been working on for weeks.

During the course of our reporting we asked the question everyone was asking: Why did the Carpenters not respond to The Stowe Reporter’s calls or go public sooner? We were surprised by the length and vehemence of Donna Carpenter’s answer. We weighed whether or not to print her response. In the end, we only printed the following: “The Stowe Reporter has not been kind to us.”

Those were Donna Carpenter’s words, not mine.

VT Ski + Ride did not rehash the fire or police report—those stories had already been told. Instead, we concentrated on what I hope we can all focus on now — not finger pointing, but rebuilding.

Lisa Lynn