Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Whine, whine, whine

C: If a Letter to the Editor is sent, the whole letter should be published, not half of it like was done to my husband last year. Letters to the Editor are exercising Freedom of Speech. It's supposed to be a Democracy. Your Editor chose to discriminate. - T.M.

A: As we state on the editorial page, letters are subject to editing for length, clarity and taste. We also correct what might be considered embarrassing errors in grammar and spelling.

The newspaper is not a public utility. You have no constitutional right to express your opinion in someone else's newspaper. You do have a constitutional right to express your opinions, which means you can publish your own newspaper and say whatever you want in it.

And of course editors discriminate. That's their job: to decide what to print and what not to print. We take a tiny portion of all that is happening in the world and publish it each day. If we were not discriminating, the newspaper would be too heavy to lift and too expensive to buy.

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