The Des Moines Register staff has heard from hundreds of people in the past few days upset over our handling of a story on Carson King, the 24-year-old whose Busch Light sign on ESPN’s “College GameDay” show launched more than a million dollars in donations to an Iowa children’s hospital.

We’ve listened with an open mind to everyone, but especially Iowans, the people who are our neighbors, who care as much as we do about our state and everyone who lives here.

And we hear you: You’re angry, you’re disappointed and you want us to understand that.

I want to be as transparent as possible about what we did and why, answer the questions you’ve raised and tell you what we’ve learned so far and what we’ll try to do better. For one, we’re revising our policies and practices, including those that did not uncover our own reporter’s past inappropriate social media postings. That reporter is no longer with the Register.

King’s generosity is a great story, and the Stead Family Children’s Hospital is a great cause. The story shifted Tuesday evening, however, when King held a news conference with local TV stations to acknowledge racist tweets from his past, and Busch Light, one of the companies bankrolling his fundraising, distanced itself from him.

The Register reporter writing the profile had discovered the tweets on King’s public timeline earlier in the day, and he asked King about them. King, to his credit, expressed immediate regret.

The timeline gets a bit complicated here: Register editors discussed at length whether to include information about the tweets and King’s remorse in our profile, but we were still editing the story when King talked to local TV stations. Busch Light announced its decision shortly afterward. We hadn’t yet published anything about his tweets when some people on social media began accusing the Register of doing King wrong and ruining a potential opportunity to continue raising millions of dollars to help sick children.

Many of you have said the timeline is beside the point. You’ve asked instead why we chose to look into King’s tweets in the first place. Some of you then noticed questionable tweets by the reporter himself, which the Register then began to investigate.

I’ll discuss some of the steps in our decision-making later. But rest assured, we’re examining all of our processes with fresh eyes. In response to this week’s conversations, we’re focused on:

Our policies for backgrounding individuals in stories, with particular attention to acts committed by juveniles and to the newsworthiness of that information years later.

The shift in social media culture and how activities on those platforms reflect upon a person’s newsworthiness in general.

Our screening policy and social media vetting for employees.

More:Meet Carson King, the 'Iowa Legend' who's raised more than $1 million for charity off of a sign asking for beer money

Doing background work

Some of you wonder why journalists think it’s necessary to look into someone’s past. It’s essential because readers depend on us to tell a complete story.

In this case, our initial stories drew so much interest that we decided to write a profile of King, to help readers understand the young man behind the handmade sign and the outpouring of donations to the children’s hospital. The Register had no intention to disparage or otherwise cast a negative light on King.

In doing backgrounding for such a story, reporters talk to family, friends, colleagues or professors. We check court and arrest records as well as other pertinent public records, including social media activity. The process helps us to understand the whole person.

There have been numerous cases nationally of fundraising for a person experiencing a tragedy that was revealed as a scam after media investigated the backgrounds of the organizer or purported victim.

As journalists, we have the obligation to look into matters completely, to aid the public in understanding the people we write about and in some cases to whom money is donated.

Deciding what to publish

Once we have obtained information in background checks, how do we decide what to publish?

It weighed heavily on our minds that the racist jokes King tweeted, which we never published, were disturbing and highly inappropriate. On the other hand, we also weighed heavily that the tweets were posted more than seven years ago, when King was 16, and he was highly remorseful.

We ultimately decided to include a few paragraphs at the bottom of the story. As it turned out, our decision-making process was preempted when King held his evening news conference to discuss his tweets and when Busch Light’s parent company announced it would sever its future ties with King.

King told us later that Busch Light representatives had called him early Tuesday afternoon to say the company was severing any future relationship. Neither the Register nor King had notified the company about the tweets. Busch Light made its decision independently of any news coverage on the tweets.

Social media use by Register employees

Now I’ll turn to the investigation into our reporter’s social media use: Until readers called to our attention some inappropriate posts from several years ago, the Register was unaware of them.

Employees of the Register are vetted through typical employment screening methods, which can include a review of past social media activity, but the screening processes did not surface those tweets. Register employees additionally must review and agree to a company-wide social media policy that includes a statement that employees "do not post comments that include discriminatory remarks, harassment, threats of violence or similar content." We also have policies that speak to our company values.

We took appropriate action because there is nothing more important in journalism than having readers’ trust.

Moving forward

None of what’s happened has slowed King’s fundraising for the children’s hospital. We can all agree that’s good news.

While Busch Light has said it won’t have future business ties with King, it is honoring its financial pledge to the hospital, committing to donate more than $350,000. Other businesses, from the Venmo digital payments company to Goldie’s Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City, have stood by their pledges or increased them.

Thank you for your concerns about our coverage and for hearing me out directly here. To everyone who called, wrote and posted your opinions — your passion about news and its role in our society is clear. We heard you say you want news coverage that helps bring us together, not divide us. We agree, and we appreciate your heartfelt critiques of our work, as well as your support.

Carol Hunter is the Register’s executive editor. She wants to hear your questions, story ideas or concerns at 515-284-8545, chunter@registermedia.com, or on Twitter @carolhunter.

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