By election day, the total was 16, of whom 11 were named. Details of their stories varied, but there were common themes, including a feeling of deep helplessness and lasting humiliation. Knowing the anguish they had expressed to our reporters, I admired their courage.

Among those employees whose misfortune it is to answer the phones at The Times, there is a consensus that our angriest critics haven't actually read the stories. Instead, they've heard about them secondhand.

If you would like to read them, they are posted on our Web site: http://www.latimes.com/recall.

I believe they'll strike you as rigorously factual and even in tone. They're also certain to strike you as vulgar, perhaps even obscene. My wife informed me that I'd strayed far over the line in publishing one of the anecdotes.

But such is the behavior at the heart of the issue.

Are the stories significant? Some think they starkly illuminate the character of a man who has been elected to the highest office in California. Some don't. Our role is to serve citizens of varying views by examining the behavior and the policies of political leaders and publishing our findings.

And when we publish, we do it in a timely fashion. Better, I say, to be surprised by your newspaper in October than to learn in November that your newspaper has betrayed you by withholding the truth.