More than we can publish
October 22nd, 2008 at 08:50am Wally Haas
Letters to the editor about the Nov. 4 election are due by 5 p.m. Friday, but already we have more letters than can be published between now and Nov. 2, the last day we run election-related letters.
Early in the campaign season we run letters as they come in. Many people like to wait until as late as possible because they think their letter will have more impact for their candidate or their issue the closer to the election it runs.
That’s a good strategy, but when you have as many contested races on the ballot as we have this year, it’s difficult to to get them all in.
In past years I’ve eliminated national columnists the week before the election so I could use as many letters as possible. I’ve received many complaints about that from folks who say they’d rather read what Krauthammer, Thomas, Parker, Robinson, Goodman, etc. have to say than read another election letter.
We’ll run as many as possible, but not all will make it.
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4 Comments Add your own
1. hokumboy | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
I would love to see the day when NO election-related letters are published.
They are generally idiotic, party generated drivel, and convince no one.
I know there’s folks that will scream “freedom of speech” but it would be nice to see a year when we’re not subjected to these tired old missives.
2. Wally Haas | October 22nd, 2008 at 10:39 am
There are many people who agree with you, but I don’t think we should eliminate this forum yet.
Some letters are good and draw attention to issues and candidates that do not receive a lot of news coverage.
Letters about the presidential race, mostly, are not “party generated drivel.”
I’d like to hear from more people about the value, or lack thereof, of election-related letters.
3. Milton Waddams | October 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Why not publish the extra ones online? There isn’t really a limit to how many can be put online…
4. Wally Haas | October 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
A good suggestion. It\’s one that we;ve considered before and will again. The only hangup is staff time, which like print space, is limited. It takes time to verify and post. We\’ll do the best we can.
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