By Seth Boyes,
Seth Boyes, News Editor
It’s hard to complain about a local opinion page that’s packed full of letters to the editor.
That’s a good thing. It means people are paying attention. It means people care.
And they should. Just by skimming the letters printed on this page, anyone can see folks have some strong opinions about the upcoming local elections. Again, that’s great, because all too often in this age of flash and political pizzaz, the elections closest to a community receive the least attention from voters.
And so, as the volume of said letters seems to be growing greater, I think it may be time for me as editor to undertake an all too familiar task — laying out our policies for letters to the editor during election season.
The guidelines are fairly simple. The Decorah Leader chooses not to publish letters which specifically endorse or oppose a specific candidate — that sort of thing should in all honesty be a paid advertisement. Go ahead and tell us your feelings on a candidate. Tell us about the issues you think are important. Tell us what you think of previous votes and their outcomes.
That’s all good.
But if your purpose is to use a portion of good ol’ page four as a mobile yard sign for candidate X, we’ll have to decline, but we’ll be glad to get you some pricing on an ad that can help accomplish that goal.
Now, to be entirely honest with you dear reader, that’s not always an easy task. One of my mentors in the news industry compared it to enforcing speed limits — we try our best to be fair, realizing that everyone goes a few mph over the limit from time to time, and we realize it doesn’t necessarily feel fair when you’re the one who gets told to slow down.
Trust me, folks in my position would love if this sort of things was quantitative rather than qualitative, but this is the reality and we’re honestly trying to do our best to be fair. I’ve had a few letters cross my desk which weren’t quite inside the lines, but that doesn’t mean they’re outright rejected — rather, we encourage the author to rework their letter a bit, stop shy of endorsing anyone and resubmit their letter for consideration.
Some do. Some don’t. And that’s fine too. The thing I want you to know dear reader is that we’re trying to give everyone a fair shake.
And to that end, you ought to know about rule number two come election season.
At a certain — and admittedly arbitrary — point before Election Day, you’ll find the Decorah Leader’s opinion page void of all politically-focused opinions. No letter nor legislator will appear on that edition’s page.
Again, the goal is fairness. Cutting off the discussion a ways ahead of the polls makes sure no one has the proverbial last word (I say proverbial because someone has the last word no matter what you do, of course). And yes, there’s not much to stop one side from rushing the gate and trying to get in as much as they can before the cutoff, but one has to draw the line somewhere — but then again, I’m not saying where that line is just yet…mostly because I haven’t decided.
And that’s pretty much it. Simple as promised.
Some may take issue with such a policy, and that’s ok.
Other outlets may have broader criteria for such things, and that’s ok too.
But there’s purpose behind this policy. The opinion page is meant to foster discussion among readers, not create space for the listing of resumes and the touting of character traits. The opinion page is about there so the community can hear from you, dear reader. And hopefully by doing so on this thin piece of newsprint, we as a community will better understand those with differing viewpoints — something many of us say there needs to be more of in modern politics.
Agree with Seth? Think he’s got it completely backwards or he’s missed the point entirely? Let your voice be heard. Letters to the editor may be emailed to editor@decorahleader.com or dropped off at 110 Washington St. Suite 4 in Decorah.
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