Campaign season letters policy

As we enter the last few weeks of the campaign season, now is a good time to take a moment to analyze Current Publishing’s editorial policy concerning campaign letters.

First, it must be said that every newspaper loves letters to the editor. They’re not letters only for the editor, but they’re directed to and written for the people in the community. As such, this type of interaction between the newspaper staff and community is prized by editors because each letter is a chance to hear how people in the community feel about current issues. From our perspective, it is a privilege to print these letters, since they are vital part of the democratic process.

Therefore, the overarching goal of the Opinion and Commentary pages – usually coupled together near the back of the first section of the newspaper – is to offer townspeople a chance to publish their views free from our meddling. We want to keep our erasers as far from these letters as possible. The letters are the people’s voice, and we don’t typically change anything, aside from editing for grammar and spelling.

For normal letters to the editor, written outside the confines of the campaign season, there are few rules to follow. Our newspaper prefers to publish letters no longer than 300 words. If someone must exceed the word limit, and their piece necessitates more than 300 words to fully develop an idea or argument, the letter turns into a “guest column,” which we limit to 700 words. In terms of content, pretty much anything is allowed. However, we do not accept letters we feel are libelous, slanderous or a personal attack.

With the political campaign entering its final phase, you may notice multiple letters to the editor concerning political issues and races. As a company, we have developed a few additional rules. These rules and the basis for those rules are as follows:

• 250-word limit. The reason for this is that we expect many letters to flow in during the course of the campaign from proponents and opponents of local and statewide candidates or issues. We want everyone’s voice to be heard and limiting the allowable words ensures everyone can have a say.

• Candidates cannot write letters. We want to hear from supporters or detractors. We profile candidates in local races, and candidates can also pay for an ad to get their message out. Candidates have both of those venues to get their views out to the public. We reserve the opinion page as a place where members of the public can let candidates know what they think.

• Campaign staff and family members should identify themselves as such. Readers deserve that disclosure. In the small communities we cover, many recognize these affiliations, anyway, and they usually let us know when letter writers break this rule.

• Personal attacks are not tolerated in letters. In logic, it’s called the formal fallacy of ad hominem, Latin for “against the man.” Arguments in this vein are baseless and do nothing to forward the reader’s knowledge of what really matters: how someone stands on issues. A letter writer is welcomed to attack a candidate’s views on the issues of the day, but we will bar attempts at character assassination.

• We won’t publish any critical letters in the the week before the election because it doesn’t allow candidates an adequate amount of time to defend themselves. The next week is post-election and too late. Having a policy that bans last-minute negative letters helps prevent campaign-derailing surprises that warrant equal time from the candidate.

In general, campaign season is fraught with perils for local newspapers. Candidates and politicos watch the papers for bias, as they should. To this end, when the newspaper does a story involving a candidate, the other candidate is asked for his opinion on the same matter, even if the other candidate has nothing to do with the issue. The goal is to be fair, balanced and independent. It is a noble goal and one that we don’t take lightly here at Current Publishing.

If you have any questions about our editorial policies, please don’t hesitate to call the editor. As always, thank you for reading the Lakes Region Suburban Weekly.

-John Balentine, editor