Seven days since the local newspaper’s editor’s apology blog of the week.
This time he replied to one reader’s e-mail that asked why last week’s entire Record Searchlight Sunday op/ed section was void of “citizen opinions.”
The editor offered possible excuses for the saggy letters to the editor mailbag.
He said maybe letters were skimpy because the editorial page editor was gone on vacation.
He said maybe “too many folks had made a New Year’s resolution to stop sharing their opinions.”
Is he serious?
I suppose either would be easier to swallow than for the editor to gulp this potential, bitter pill:
Maybe readers’ lack of letters to the editor reflects their feelings of frustration and their perception that the relatively new RS leadership team has slashed and burned the community’s formerally award-winning community paper and its dedicated employees.
Or, maybe some online readers and dissenting commenters feel a chill of intimidation from recent happenings, including some anonymous commenters’ identities being outed, and at least one online commenter receiving a scolding letter from the publisher and being banned from writing future comments.
But back to the RS editor’s explanation.
He expressed hope that this week would be better, and offered readers this assurance:
“No, we aren’t dropping out letters to the editor. We really want more of them, we really, really do.”
Wow. Three reallys in one sentence. Really impressive.
He must really, really, really want more letters.
Likewise, I’ll bet he really, really, really wants more subscribers, advertisers, credibility and respect.
What a really, really, really big job.
