Not a lot of difference between the Tea Partiers and the Birchers of old.
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Donāt we all, now and then?
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You know, I go there every once in a while to see what the nutters are talking about (yes, itās always the same thingā¦ not sure whatās wrong with me) and Iāve been surprised by the more and more frequent push-back they get. I wouldnāt go so far as to describe the detractors as āreasonableā but itās not wall to wall āSOCIALIST KENYAN!!!ā anymore.
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Most serious publications try and select letters that contribute meaningfully to a discussion or debate, whether or not they agree with them. (Itās pretty common, for instance, to publish letters that criticize an article in the paper itself.)
The paperās fault was that they felt that this letter contributed meaningfully to a debate. Giving this wacko a pedestal, out of all the letters they could have selected, was indeed an editorial mistake.
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It happened to still be up on my other tab:
Itās not a big deal to correct a headline from an excessively click-baity, incorrect original (although one might note it ironic that it was done so without comment, in an article about a paper publishing a retraction.)
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Have you read a small-town newspaper?
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My local paper (which, to be fair, is owned by the Mirror/Guardian group, and is fairly lefty - or out and out communist by US paperās standards) has a bad infestation of Nazis and cranks in its online section. We troll them hard. Iām sure some ānew mediaā oaf is super-proud of cultivating them, and is adequately rewarded for their clickbait fostering antics, but hey ho.
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Is this part of Dick Scaifeās PA newspaper publishing empire? He bankrolled all the kooks who claimed Vince Foster was murdered.
I wrote my first LTE to one of his papers in response to someone who said that we should fill the Space Shuttle with nuclear weapons and hold the rest of the world hostage.
I swear, those papers print letters that came to them on torn brown paper shopping bags and written in squirrel blood and glitter.
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I foresee this story finding its way to āRetraction Watchā.
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Looks like one news paper was tired of the internet holding the monopoly on crazy, ranting comments.
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Agreed. I honestly had no idea there were so many hateful ignoramuses in the world before the advent of online comments.
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great band name - at the least maybe a song?
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As a grade school student (maybe Jr. High) in the 60s or 70s my class toured Newsday. During the talk the issue of letters to the editors came up. I asked if the letters were chosen because may letter writers shared the opinion. The answer was no, they selected letters that were well written and presented an opinion well. And they thought the opinion was worthy of printing.
OTOH I work in the publishing industry. LTE has dropped off greatly. We are at least as likely to publish a snippet from an online comment as a letter. This reflects the paucity of letters compared to 10 years ago.
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And yet these online comments are of much much muuuuuch lower quality than the worst letter received.
These people exist. These people remind me that I donāt enjoy reading newspaper articles. That theyāre so prevalent in āopinionā pages is another reason Iām happy I donāt subscribe to print. Not because Iām offended that people donāt share my views, but because they choose to curate for legitimately crazy assholes instead of āprincipledā counters to my view.
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Meanwhile, 12 comments prior: PA paper publishes letter calling for Obama's execution, then apologizes when readers complain
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It was not done entirely without comment.
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Itās how I format my resume.
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Good lord, I was afraid my hometown paper printed this. Itās not that far from Sunbury, though.
I donāt care much for the headlines anyhow. Read them more as āSoemthing something PA paper outrage somethingā.
I tend not to take anyones few words for what actually happened, ever, anywhere. But I love the stories people tell when you let them ramble and withhold judgement.
True.
One issue with forums is that at times crazy people think that their opinion is something to be taken seriously.
We donāt give voice to people that think the moon is made of cheese or the ocean tastes like Dr. Pepper. But often the media allows people to spew ridiculousness as ābalanceā or āboth sidesā. As if, for instance, thereās even a viable reason for there to be a debate on evolution vs intelligent design. There is no such thing as the latter.
I guess in a letters area, itās more of a place to allow people to ventā¦
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