"It has come to our attention that the majority of the op-ed "Everyone pays, few benefit from Newberry's education subsidy" printed in our last issue was not written by Ralph Brown. The letter was originally written by Doug Alexander in support of Bill Farmer's campaign prior to the mayoral primary in May and was submitted to Business Lexington without Alexander's knowledge or permission.
As a policy, Business Lexington does not endorse political candidates. Four weeks prior to our deadline for the October 20 issue, we invited both mayoral candidates to encourage their supporters to submit for our consideration op-eds related to any significant issues in the campaign. According to Brown, the copy in question, which was not previously published, was supplied to him by Teresa Isaac's campaign. The Isaac campaign said they were not aware that Alexander had written the letter, but refused to identify the individual who provided it to them.
We make our Parting Thoughts pages available for the expression of original ideas and dialogue from across the Lexington community. We find this apparent act of plagiarism inexcusable and regret that we and our readers were subjected to it.
- Tom Martin, Editor in chief"