Petrelis Files

Dear Mr. Ridder,

Thanks for your quick response and explanation about your donation to George W. Bush in 1999.

However, you didn't address my concerns over Beryl Adcock's donations to Kerry and the Democratic National Committee.

As a news consumer, I need to know if Adcock's financial support of Kerry and the DNC violates Knight Ridder's code of ethics and if her donations have been disclosed to readers.

In my opinion, it's in the best interests of Knight Ridder, and its commitment to fairness, balance and the facts, for you to explain Adcock's contributions.

Regards,
Michael Petrelis


Subj: RE: Knight Ridder DC editor gave to Kerry in April, CEO gave to Bush in '99
Date: 8/31/04 2:47:23 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TRidder@knightridder.com (Ridder, Tony)
To: MPetrelis@aol.com

My recollection of what happened five years ago is my wife gave $2000 to
the Bush campaign(1999) and half of it was attributed to me. Since then
neither one of us has contributed to a political campaign nor will we
contribute again as long as I'm CEO of the company. We will tighten our
ethics policy so there can be no ambiguity about newsroom personnel,
Publishers or corporate executives with newsroom oversight
responsibilities contributing to campaigns that our newspapers are
covering. I don't have a problem with other Knight Ridder employees
personally contributing to political campaigns.