I hope you noticed something special this week. And if you didn’t, I’m hoping this gentle reminder will be enough to encourage you to go back and check out what I’m going to tell you about.

I don’t have to tell you that politicians try to protect their image and control how their story is told. To the credit of mayoral candidates Peter Carlisle, Kirk Caldwell and Panos Prevedouros, they agreed to let Civil Beat Reporter-Host Adrienne LaFrance shadow each of them for a day.

No, that doesn’t mean she heard every conversation. Or saw everything they did.

But it does mean that she was with them so long that her description of their day created a flesh-and-blood image of each of the candidates, a human portrait. I found Adrienne’s stories incredibly revealing. I hope you’ll take some time to read them this weekend.

• Do You Want This Man to Be Mayor? Kirk Caldwell
• Do You Want This Man to Be Your Mayor? Panos Prevedouros
• Do You Want This Man to Be Your Mayor? Peter Carlisle

These articles are examples of documentary journalism, something I believe in deeply. We, as journalists, best serve you by being witnesses. We best serve you not by taking what we’re offered, but by asking what it’s important to know. (By the way, we asked both Democratic governor candidates for the opportunity to do the same kind of story with them and were turned down.)

The other thing I hope you didn’t miss on Civil Beat this week is the quality of outside voices sharing their views on the site.

I also believe strongly in the value of what are known as op-eds, opinion pieces by people with special knowledge of a subject. These contribute deeply to the kind of discussion we are trying to encourage and support on Civil Beat.

You’re probably familiar with our series of essays from the new book, The Value of Hawaii. We began the week Tuesday with another installment, this time on the military.

Every day we went on to publish a compelling article by a contributor to Civil Beat. I hope you’ll go back and look at:

• Our Hawaiian Manhattan
• Getting Beyond Gridlock
• Leader of Government Employees Union Responds to Salary Articles

The latter piece is an example of something I think it’s important for any news organization to do, and that’s give a place to its critics to share their views. Given our belief in the value of civil dialogue, in the possibility of disagreeing without being disagreeable, we think it’s incumbent to share views in conflict with our own. That leads to healthy conversation

If you come away from the site with anything today, I hope it’s an appreciation of our commitment to journalism that goes beyond the surface and to inviting you and others to contribute to the conversation.

Together, we can make something special happen.