The N&R responds to our letter to the editor about accuracy in LTE with this note: 

The News & Record’s policy is to screen and edit letters for factual errors. Occasionally not all inaccuracies are caught.

I was hoping for a little more detail on process, and perhaps a bit more acknowledgement of the scale of the problem. 

Below, the letter as published in this morning's print and online editions:

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 without appending clarifications or corrections.

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 mistake. It is reckless for the N&R to publish that kind of misinformation without telling a concerned community the real story.

An even more recent letter stated that scientists now have evidence that dinosaurs lived several thousand years ago. This is not true. Saying otherwise is not the writer’s sentiment, it’s an assertion of (alleged) fact that should not be printed without commentary in a serious newspaper.

We are entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts. What is the newspaper’s policy on the accuracy of information it publishes?

Edward Cone
Greensboro

Twenty-eight people, via social media, added their names as co-signatories of this letter (http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2014/08/a-letter-to-the-editor.html andhttps://www.facebook.com/edcone/posts/10152662847380421).

Editor’s note: The News & Record’s policy is to screen and edit letters for factual errors. Occasionally not all inaccuracies are caught.

Comments

[Andrew Brod]

The problem isn't that the editor's note is incomplete, it's that it's dismissive. Mind you, this isn't the first time I've noticed that coming from them.

[pfknc]

It appears to me that most of the time there is complete lack of any assessment - I find it very hard to accept that they actually screen the letters based on what they publish to assert otherwise is pure BS.