We started this newspaper with plans focused on the future — one where small-town newspapers thrived again. But some of the things we hoped for were old-fashioned. We wanted people to write letters to the editor. The kind that take up an argument left unfinished in a story, an idea sparked by another reader, or an odd quirk of community life. I’ll never forget R.S. Steinberg’s letter in verse about following the trail of dog poop bags on Whistle Path.
We don’t get a lot of letters. Maybe readers are just too busy. Letters are a slow way of communicating. For some people the issue may be lack of faith in the editor’s openness to contrary opinions. We invite letters from readers “on all subjects.” Maybe we should add that we entertain letters with a wide range of points of view.
We do edit people’s letters. Let’s go over the rules for that. The editing is not about whether we like or don’t like the opinions being expressed. It’s mostly about cutting out unnecessary words, fixing sentences that are unclear, and sometimes adding facts that provide important background and context for the writer’s viewpoint. We don’t let writers make assertions of fact that aren’t true. If I’m not sure whether a statement is true or not, I’ll ask the writer to provide supporting evidence.
Another important rule: no change in a correspondent’s letter makes it into the paper without the writer’s agreement.
I know people have strong opinions about what appears in the Independent. I hear some of them in long phone messages or read them typed on a lawyer’s letterhead. Or in text messages directed at reporters. I would like to have the chance to query and whittle these salvos, then offer them up for debate.
We received three good letters this week — about harbor dredging, an unusual headline, and ice cream. There was another letter as well, from a subscriber who finds our coverage of local politics biased and our reporting on wind energy one-sided. “I’m pretty disgusted by this,” she wrote. She didn’t like that we reported that a candidate in Truro had run for office in another state as a Republican. “Be a better human and a more fair citizen. Make news more honest and transparent. None of us are stupid and it’s been looking like you think we are for a while.”
I contacted her, saying that we would publish her letter, including her somewhat severe assessment of our ethics and humanity, and suggested a few edits to make the letter clearer. At first, she said she was pleased. Then she changed her mind about appearing in print.
The messages that get us in trouble are usually written in haste — another reason why the slowness of writing a good letter is helpful.
It does take courage to state your opinion openly. But what’s not old-fashioned about letters in a newspaper is that we need that courage right now from everyone.
