Over the years, I have been criticized for many of my decisions when it comes to newspapers. I’ve had people disagree with the pictures I chose to publish. I’ve had people correct me when I got a fact wrong in a news coverage story. I’ve had people even criticize what stories I picked as a priority for that week.
Okay.
I can understand people disagree. Their criticism never bothers me. Most of the time I look at it as well, they have their opinion and I have mine. I make every effort to explain my actions and reasonings. Nine times out 10, after people receive an explanation, they understand and everything is golden.
One criticism I get from time-to-time is my stance on publishing letters to the editor.
See, I believe in publishing all letters to the editor barring a few exceptions such as the use of curse words or a disgruntled citizen singling out a local business leader, church authority or political representative. Other than that, I’ll run it.
Why?
Well, because this is a community paper. It’s a paper for the community and of the community.
Before the onset of social media sites, the newspaper was the main form of communication for a citizen to be heard by their community. In many ways, the newspaper still maintains that sacred duty. I, for one, refuse to mess with that standard.
Now I know the Tate Record hasn’t always had this stance on letters to the editor, but well, what can I say, there’s a new horse in the rodeo.
So now that the cat is out of the bag on my view on letters to the editor, I want to make a clarification on an often misunderstood concept.
It is the newspaper’s holy and sacred duty to remain unbiased and impartial.
When we run a news story, our staff members are trained to only run the facts we know are true. Sure there are instances where we may mistype a year, but when those mistakes are pointed out to us after we missed them, we make every effort to run a correction and clarify the facts.
An opinion piece is completely different.
This column, you are reading right now, is an opinion piece. You’ve just read my opinion on why letters to the editor should be published. But if you go a couple counties over, you may find a publisher who has an altogether different opinion on the matter.
Letters to the editor fall into the category of opinion. They are the authors’ opinions on a wide array of topics. On pages A6 and A7 of this edition you will find four different opinion pieces on religion. They are all written by local columnists about topics relating to faith.
On page A2 of this edition you will find an opinion piece by weekly columnist Peggy Williams, AKA Birdie of Mississippi. She writes weekly on her opinion of how birds and birding can relate to many topics in life.
Sure some of these columnists site different resources to back up their opinion, but the fact remains, they are stating their own ideas and thoughts on a matter.
When a subscriber or resident from the community writes me a letter to the editor, it typically means that person feels very strongly about a subject and chose to sit down and write a letter about it. It’s their opinion.
We, publish it for them because we remain the only printed media outlet in Tate County which has a periodical permit granted by the U.S. postal service- a requirement for legal notices to hold merit, which you will find on pages A8 and A9 of this edition.
So when I receive letters, messages, phone calls, emails or in-person complaints generally saying “How could you publish that letter to the editor? It was wrong.”
My answer is the same for everyone: “If you disagree, write your own letter to the editor, and we will publish it.”
Now I may get critized for many things. Okay. I can handle it.
But no one will ever be able to call me biased when it comes to the newspaper business. It’s simply untrue.
For example, the boyfriend is a Senatobia Police Officer, you’ll never see my name as a byline on a story about one of his arrests or cases. Why? Because I wouldn’t want to risk having an unconscious bias toward the story; so Brett Brown, our seasoned and extremely capable reporter covers those stories. In turn, I simply put the stories on page.
So, now that we’ve cleared the air, the Tate Record will continue to hold ourselves to the highest standard of moral and factual reporting. But when it comes to letters from those in the community who wish to express their personal opinions, we won’t deny them that right.
If we started censoring whose opinions could print and whose opinion we wouldn’t print then we truly would have a bias and lose our integrity.
I’m sure there are many in the community who disagree with my opinion on this matter. That’s fine. If you disagree with me, write me a letter. I’ll run it. And now you can hold me to it-it’s in print.
