Someone e-mailed a letter to the editor to me recently and I replied with a thanks and said I love getting letters to the editor. This was the reply to the reply...
"You know, people DO love to talk about the letters...Sometimes good and sometimes
not, but they just wait for the paper to see if anyone has responded...we are a strange
lot, aren't we????"
Well, that got me thinking about letters and opinions and I don't think it's at all strange. Here's my reply to the reply to the reply...
That's kind of why I started the Blog too. Our letters page (and now the Blog site) should be a place where readers can gather and discuss issues.
I always get a little taken aback when people will call and blast us for an editorial on a personal level. Sometimes commentaries are intended to call for change or to launch criticism (if warranted) but sometimes we take an issue and write something somewhat opinionated in hopes of provoking some thought or discussion... here's a concept, agree or disagree... preferably in writing so we can share your views with our readers!
I once got called on at the last minute to be part of a seminar for journalists on the role of community papers and what the dailies can learn from us. I mentioned that I often write editorials from "the other side" as in I make a case for something I disagree with. I compared it to a debate - in which debaters often must argue a case they are given, not one they believe in. And it can be fun to look at an issue from someone else's viewpoint, try to understand it from a different perspective.
One veteran journalist was outraged at the idea of an editorial writer betraying his personal beliefs and values to argue a different side of an issue. I respectfully disagree. I don't think any editorial writer could honestly hold a strong enough opinion on enough issues to write "from the heart" in every edition. If I did that I'd be writing a lot of editorials about the Awesomeness of Chicken Wings and how Every Driver is an Idiot But Me.
And that would just be boring.
We value our letters from readers and it's a real treat to get one on a local issue that we can tell is written with passion and thought. It takes courage to put pen to paper, write an opinion and sign your name to it.
We don't print anonymous letters though we do allow anonymous Blog comments. We monitor them but we aren't out to censor them.
We had to refuse one letter to the editor recently and the person who wrote it is not happy with us. It dealt with an issue that we know is of prime importance to the writer but it levels criticism at individuals - calling certain people "liars" and worse.
Our lawyer reviewed the letter and said it would almost surely invite a lawsuit.
Our letter writer disrespectfully disagrees with us and our lawyers. It is, the person says, the truth. The subjects of the letter ARE liars the writer insists. Maybe. But we're not prepared to find that out in court. And we're not prepared to defame anyone in our community without evidence and facts to back it up.
That's my ramble for this morning.
Chuck
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1 comment:
A good place to go to call people liars in the House of Commons. I am even going to call them idiots and they call each other names worse than that, and never suffer any consequences. My advice is if you want to call people dirty, rotten stinking names, run for office, it's the Canadian way.
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