People are talking about the N&R opinion page. They are not saying good things. On Facebook, the paper's former top editor (and before that, opinion editor) mocks his old employer's standards for LTE. There's a pile-on in the comments. [John Robinson, via FB, re his comment ("Next up, a letter explaining that ghosts are scientific fact"): "I don't mock the paper's standards. I do question them in that case. That's different than mocking them."]
Another former editor posts at his blog under the headline, "Letters to the editor: Now the News & Record is just trolling us." That's preferable to the theory I floated a couple of weeks ago: They just don't care.
Oddly silent are the folks on Market Street. Sure, their actions speak volumes: The N&R will publish letters containing factual errors obvious to a clever ten-year-old. It's policy. But why?
Maybe their take on free speech enshrines a right to spew misinformation in a newspaper, because, Opinion! Maybe they don't have enough people left to monitor letters for content, or enough readers left to fill the page with non-fiction. We don't know.
There's a conversation out here among their readers, but the editors are not participating. It's a pre-internet approach to journalism.
I guess we could write a letter to the editor.
Seriously, my draft is below. If you want to sign it, leave your real name in the comments.
To the editors:
Expressing an opinion is a right. Having an opinion published in the newspaper is not a right. The News & Record should not publish letters that contain clear misstatements of fact.
One recent letter to the editor said Women's Hospital might close in October. This is not true. Women's Hospital might close in 2019. Saying otherwise is not an opinion, it's a fallacy. It is reckless for the N&R to publish that kind of misinformation.
An even more recent letter stated that scientists now have evidence that dinosaurs lived several thousand years ago. This is not true. It should not be printed without commentary in a serious newspaper.
Maybe the editors can explain their policy and the reasons for it in a note or editorial.
[your name here]
I have no plans to be silent.
Michael A Picarelli
Posted by: Michael Picarelli | Aug 25, 2014 at 10:28 PM
It is ridiculous.
Al DeCarlo
Posted by: Al DeCarlo | Aug 26, 2014 at 07:26 AM
I agree that opinions should not be printed when the facts are incorrect.
People may have an opinion but without facts to back it up, it's rumor. We know what rumor does. It spreads lies and causes harm.
We have laws about shouting "fire" in a building when there is no fire. And see how fast you get arrested in an airport if you even mention the word bomb.
You are entitled to your opinion, but a newspaper is bound by the truth and must honor that.
Posted by: Rosalyn Marhatta | Aug 26, 2014 at 07:39 AM
I agree. Even opinion letters must be factually correct or have a line beneath indicating the correct information.
Ronnie Grabon
Posted by: Ronnie Grabon | Aug 26, 2014 at 08:14 AM
David B. Craft
Without editing the letter, mention at the bottom, in italics, pertinent information correcting or clarifying the letter.
Posted by: David Craft | Aug 26, 2014 at 09:28 AM
Douglas A Hofer
Long-time lurker here, but this gets me out of lurking. When the ability to comment was started, it was at a time when I started learning and becoming more engaged in the issues of the day. Now, however, it's a low-level mud-sling there.
I like David's suggestion.
Posted by: Doug H | Aug 26, 2014 at 11:23 AM
Add me, please.
Posted by: Lex | Aug 26, 2014 at 12:28 PM
Add me.
I read this morning's letter about evolution and just shook my head in disbelief.
David Hoggard
Posted by: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=622464993 | Aug 26, 2014 at 03:16 PM
Dealing with LTE can be difficult. But it's not that hard to publish meaningful, accurate opinions and sort out the crazy talk.
Anthony Harrison
Former Opinion Section Editor, The Guilfordian.
Posted by: Anthony Harrison | Aug 26, 2014 at 03:43 PM
I agree. Falsehoods have no place here.
Posted by: Ann Nash | Aug 26, 2014 at 05:09 PM
Add me.
Posted by: H Jimison | Aug 26, 2014 at 08:37 PM
Well said. I'll sign my name to that.
Posted by: Gwen Gosney Erickson | Aug 26, 2014 at 10:58 PM
I agree. Ashley F. Wall
Posted by: Ashley F. Wall | Aug 27, 2014 at 06:57 AM
George Hartzman
Posted by: hartzman | Aug 27, 2014 at 07:54 AM
I'm in, as well.
Richard L. Yarbrough
Posted by: Richard Yarbrough | Aug 27, 2014 at 08:28 AM
Dale Edwards
Posted by: Dale Edwards | Aug 27, 2014 at 08:55 AM
In today's LTEs we read, "Early colonists did not want a 'state church'". LOL.
But I have a question: should your principle apply to opinion columns as well? For example, Leonard Pitts recently misstated Charles Murray's conclusions in The Bell Curve. Should the editors correct or comment on things like that as well -- and do they have the resources to do so?
Posted by: David Wharton | Aug 27, 2014 at 09:05 AM
Light the Wet Fart.
Posted by: Fec | Aug 27, 2014 at 10:03 AM
One is entitled to his or her own opinion; but not to his or her own FACTS. Marylin Karmel
Posted by: Marylin Karmel | Aug 27, 2014 at 05:08 PM
I agree, Ed.
Posted by: David Bulluck | Aug 27, 2014 at 05:39 PM
@David Wharton: I think the better idea there is to contact the source, i.e., the syndicate or the writer's home base (in Pitts's case, the Miami Herald). But if THEY won't fact-check their columnists (and George Freaking Will is living proof that they won't), I don't see why it should be the N&R's responsibility.
Posted by: Lex | Aug 27, 2014 at 09:57 PM
Though you'd like to think that the N&R would stop running a columnist who's a serial offender in that regard.
Posted by: Andrew Brod | Aug 27, 2014 at 10:25 PM
I'm in!
Posted by: Tim Warmath | Aug 29, 2014 at 07:37 AM
So, the letter hit newsprint today. What a ludicrous editor's note/response.
Posted by: Tom Lassiter | Sep 05, 2014 at 09:27 AM
"Occasionally not all inaccuracies are caught."
Like when the letter is written by Gary Marschall.
Posted by: Dale | Sep 05, 2014 at 10:20 AM