Dear Editor: I am writing this with a heavy heart for close friends and a vast amount of disappointment for the Covington News. As a lifetime member of this community, it was upsetting to see what I and many others deem as irresponsible journalism. The power of the pen has mighty and callous disregard for a victim’s family when it is coupled with this type work.

In Amber Pittman’s continuing series "Ashes to Ashes’ we are able to read about infamous murder cases in the county’s history and have a glimpse into where the criminal is and what let to the crime. It seems little thought was given to the impact these articles might have on the victim’s family and friends.Especially if little effort is made to contact the family and they find out about the article while on an extended vacation when checking voice mail. As a friend of the Singleton family, I know very little effort was made to contact them. A message was left for them one day prior to the article being in the paper. This causes great concern to me as to whether Ms. Pittman wanted to contact the family for the story or to just ask a couple of questions and tack a quote into an already written story. Surely the idea for this article did not come to her one day before it was published. Ms. Pittman obviously did not spend much time checking her facts — therefore many errors and misleading information was published.

I would hope the Covington News acts more responsibly in the covering of all news and if this series continues, I should hope Ms. Pittman performs in a more professional manner in contacting her sources to prepare them for what will be published and not spreading the blame to insinuate the victim might have caused this horrible act to happen.

The criminal is in jail where she should be left, not brought back to the front page of the paper, which most certainly brings painful memories for the victim’s family and friends.

Judy M. Hooten, Covington