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When is it right and when is it wrong?
Wouldn’t it be great if everything was either black and white, right and wrong or good and bad?
It certainly would make life simpler, but maybe not necessarily easier or more fun.
In reality, few things are either black or white, right or wrong, etc. There are myriad shades of gray, although some people believe some issues are black and white. But even here, people won’t always agree on what exactly is a black or white situation.
Most people would probably agree that murdering someone is wrong. Yet, sometimes killing can be justified if it’s in self-defense or in the defense of your family or your nation.
The debate could go on endlessly.
And that’s what we often have in reference to some letters to the editor. There’s an endless debate over what types of letters are appropriate to run and which ones cross some constantly changing line from opinion to just being insulting or offensive in some way.
A recently published letter calling the GOP the “Party of Hate” added fuel to this ongoing debate. Obviously, it was an opinion, just like calling Democrats “unpatriotic tax and spend advocates.” The phases can be offensive to some, a statement of fact to others and yet a third group of people would probably just shrug off both comments as being political rhetoric.
Was the letter appropriate to run? Some readers adamantly said “no” but others found the statement, in their opinion, true.
As a newspaper, we try to be fair and we don’t want to be insulting. The easy letters to reject are the ones that espouse prejudice and bigotry. They go far beyond the realm of opinion.
But in the example, the letter writer was listing issues that Republicans generally oppose. However, instead of saying they were against such issues, the writer said Republicans “hated” those issues.
It would be wonderful if all letters were written in a pure, non-offensive manner or in a disgusting, insulting fashion. It would be easy then to decide which ones to publish and which ones to toss in the waste basket.
But the line is often not clear and so we have to make — you guessed it — a judgment call. Was it the right call, some readers say “yes,” others say “no.”
We can’t second guess all of our readers, but don’t worry, we’ll keep trying.
It certainly would make life simpler, but maybe not necessarily easier or more fun.
In reality, few things are either black or white, right or wrong, etc. There are myriad shades of gray, although some people believe some issues are black and white. But even here, people won’t always agree on what exactly is a black or white situation.
Most people would probably agree that murdering someone is wrong. Yet, sometimes killing can be justified if it’s in self-defense or in the defense of your family or your nation.
The debate could go on endlessly.
And that’s what we often have in reference to some letters to the editor. There’s an endless debate over what types of letters are appropriate to run and which ones cross some constantly changing line from opinion to just being insulting or offensive in some way.
A recently published letter calling the GOP the “Party of Hate” added fuel to this ongoing debate. Obviously, it was an opinion, just like calling Democrats “unpatriotic tax and spend advocates.” The phases can be offensive to some, a statement of fact to others and yet a third group of people would probably just shrug off both comments as being political rhetoric.
Was the letter appropriate to run? Some readers adamantly said “no” but others found the statement, in their opinion, true.
As a newspaper, we try to be fair and we don’t want to be insulting. The easy letters to reject are the ones that espouse prejudice and bigotry. They go far beyond the realm of opinion.
But in the example, the letter writer was listing issues that Republicans generally oppose. However, instead of saying they were against such issues, the writer said Republicans “hated” those issues.
It would be wonderful if all letters were written in a pure, non-offensive manner or in a disgusting, insulting fashion. It would be easy then to decide which ones to publish and which ones to toss in the waste basket.
But the line is often not clear and so we have to make — you guessed it — a judgment call. Was it the right call, some readers say “yes,” others say “no.”
We can’t second guess all of our readers, but don’t worry, we’ll keep trying.
posted by Allan Adler at
4:07 PM
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