Publisher’s apology

Published in the November 1-14, 2017 issue of Gilroy Life

Gilroy Life Publisher Marty Cheek

We at Life Media Group strive to provide quality content to our community in Gilroy Life and Morgan Hill Life newspapers that reflect a positive view of diversity of our South Valley community. In two recent issues, we have published content that does not hold up to our standards. The first incident was in a recent crossword puzzle. A member of our community informed us that one of the clues was racially insulting toward people of Japanese heritage. Our editor, Robert Airoldi, called the Asian American Journalists Association to ask what would be a more appropriate abbreviation and they suggested “Jpn.” as the correct usage. We informed our crossword puzzle supplier who said they would not make the change. We decided to no longer use that company’s puzzles. In an upcoming issue, we will start a contract with another provider.

In the Oct. 18 issue of Gilroy Life and the Oct. 25 issue of Morgan Hill Life, we ran a Halloween-themed coloring contest. The picture was supplied by an outside company and depicted among other characters an elderly Asian male resembling Confucius. We received communication letting us know that the depiction offended some of our readers. It was not our intention to portray a stereotype and we apologize for this image

We at Life Media Group are committed to diversity and inclusion in our community. We will continue to strive to provide quality-of-life content that reflects these standards.