NewburyportNews.com : Blogs : Ask the Editor

It’s election time in many of the towns around Newburyport, and that means you’ll be seeing more letters to the editor about the candidates.

We encourage people to write about issues, politics, candidates and politicians. We do, however, restrict who can write. We don’t accept letters from the candidates, their immediate family members or their campaign staff.  My feeling is that it’s paramount that a newspaper give each candidate an even platform, and we can do that through news coverage. Letting candidates have free reign over the letters page can skew that balance badly.

What if a friend of the candidate, or a cousin, wants to write? What  about a neighbor? Well, that’s OK. You could make a legitimate argument that no one who personally knows a candidate should be allowed to write a letter, because that letter could be part of a letter-writing campaign orchestrated by the candidate. That’s an argument that works well in thory, but in practice it’s hard to draw the line, especially in small cities and towns.  So we try to make our policy as specific and understandable as possible.

Lastly, one more thing about election-related letters: We don’t accept letters that arrive less than 6 days before the election. Most elections take place on a Monday or Tuesday, so that allows us time to publish letters up to the Friday before the election. Why do we do this? Because races for political office can become heated, personal and nasty, especially in the few days before the election. “Dirty tricks,” like the mass mailing of flyers that have explosive accusations,  sometimes happen on the weekend before the election. It’s a strategy that can suddenly put one candidate on the defensive with no time to respond, thus the term “dirty trick.”

We don’t want the letters page to be used to launch “dirty tricks,” and so we publish our last letter at least 3-4 days before an election. If in those last few days we publish a letter that has some accusations, the candidate who is the target has a decent chance to respond.

There’s few events we cover that generate more anger and accusations than elections. Democracy can be ugly sometimes.   But it’s still better than the alternatives.

We’ve been getting a lot of letters and feedback of late on how our local towns spend tax money. A lot of people are asking questions or making comments.

We’ve been putting together a series of stories that looks at how Amesbury and Newburyport spend their money. The two cities are very similar in population and spending, making for a fairly valid comparison. I think the issues that we’ve been looking at (and will present in the series) will be enlightening to our readers. There’s some significant differences in some areas of how they do business.

I expect the series will start in the next few days; we’re just wrapping up some of the details now.

I thought it might be helpful to talk about some of the questions we get about the opinion page. In general it’s the most misunderstood part of a newspaper, and most of that confusion comes from the many different angles that you, as a reader, are confronted with when you open that page.

We get a lot of questions about the opinion page. Why is almost everything on this page biased? Are these facts right? Are these the opinions of the newspaper? Of its readers? Who drew the cartoon? Who wrote the editorial? What’s the difference between a letter and an “As I See It?” Who decides what letters are published? Do you publish all the letters you receive?

In this post I’ll tackle a subject that causes the most confusion, the editorial.

The opinion page is meant to be the place where our readers can speak their mind about subjects of general interest. The newspaper uses it for the same purpose. The editorial appears in the upper lefthand corner.  It’s the opinion of the newspaper on a given topic. Most of our editorials are on local matters, such as local government. When I say it’s the opinion of  “the newspaper,” I need to explain what I mean by that.

The editorials express the opinion of the newspaper’s management. They are usually written by me.  Those of you who know about The Daily News’ history know that we are part of a chain of newspapers that also owns  The Salem News, Gloucester Daily Times and Eagle-Tribune. We have close connections to these papers, and sometimes we publish editorials on regional or national matters that are written by them. There are often times when we disagree with their opinions, and in those situations we march to the beat of our own drummer. For instance, The Daily News endorsed Barack Obama, and The Eagle-Tribune endorsed John McCain.

Why do we write editorials?  Our goal is to offer suggestions and  opinions that we feel are valid and will help put some perspective on the issue at hand. We support, or criticize, actions taken by our local leaders. We endorse political candidates who we feel are best suited for the job.  We are strong advocates of open government and access to public documents. We like to find constructive solutions whenever possible. When we state our opinion, we don’t want to be “wishy-washy.” When we take a stand on an issue we strive to be clear.

Occasionally people ask me why an editorial is biased toward one side or the other. That’s the nature of an editorial – it’s an opinion. Oftentimes people disagree with our editorials. You’ll see letters that take us to task for our opinions. That’s an important part of the editorial page – it’s a place where people can argue and discuss matters.

Lastly, reporters don’t write editorials, nor do photographers.  And typically, they don’t know what the editorial says until they read it on the morning that the paper is printed. Why? Because a reporter’s job is to gather the news and to give you both sides (and sometimes, there’s more than just two sides) to the story.  Reporters are expected to be objective and professional, and so it would be wrong for them to cover the news and publish their opinion on it.