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Editorial
The News letters policy
This week’s letter to the editor from Antioch alum Michael Meyers
offers an opportunity to revisit the News policy for the paper’s
community forum page.
People sometimes seem confused or unclear about why we print the letters
we do. Some assume we print letters to promote a particular point of view,
or to provide balance on an issue. Neither assumption is accurate. This
page is a forum for villagers to express their thoughts and opinions,
and we don’t see our job as shaping or manipulating that discussion.
Our policy is simple: we print what we get.
If the community forum page provides a balance of opinions on a local
issue, such as happened recently about the Barr property project, it’s
because we received a fairly equal number of letters from those who supported
and those who opposed the project. In contrast, we published mainly pro-Antioch
College letters because that’s what we received.
We have a few caveats, however. First, we give priority to Yellow Springs
writers, believing that most villagers are more interested in opinions
from people who live here and have a stake in the community than those
who do not. So writers from out of town wait in line until space opens
up. Because we often have the happy problem of having more submissions
than space, we sometimes hold letters for a week or two. But if a letter
is tied to an event or timely for another reason, we do our best to print
it immediately.
We also only publish signed letters. We believe that a letter deserves
publication only if the writer is willing to stand behind what she or
he said. Anonymous letters and online forums often breed a mean spiritedness
that we believe undermines the quality of public discourse. We don’t
want to contribute to that trend.
However, it’s fine with us if letter writers state their positions
passionately, as they often do. It’s also appropriate if public
leaders are taken to task for their actions or words, since we believe
that as public figures they should expect to be held accountable. However,
if a writer attacks another person’s honesty or integrity, then
we send that letter back for revision. We rarely need to do this, however,
since most letter writers use a tone of civility and respect.
For some of us at the News, the community forum is our favorite part of
the paper — perhaps it’s your favorite, too. Every week this
page makes us proud to live in such an eloquent, lively and caring small
town.
—Diane Chiddister
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