Editor,

This letter is in direct response to the letter written by Eleanor Dudek which you placed in the Lakes Region Suburban Weekly on Friday, Oct. 13, 2006.

The Dudek letter calls into question the integrity of the editor and this newspaper. For you as the editor to allow a staff reporter to be singled out by name and slandered is unconscionable. It would seem that local politics are somehow more important than the truth. Shame on you Mr. Balentine, shame on you.

Cecelia Hamblen

Limington

Editor’s note: While it is commonplace for both reporters and editors to receive criticism in letters to the editor, we regret not indicating in a note at the end of Dudek’s letter in last week’s edition that staff writer Heidi MacVane made numerous unsuccessful attempts to contact Dudek. We give letter writers wide latitude in expressing their opinions on matters of local interest and about stories published in this newspaper.