Keep those clean and tasteful letters coming

“Don’t you know those letters are all just part of a write-in

campaign?” the city official asked me at breakfast one morning.

He was referring to a string of letters that he said was written

by several members of one particular group.

Then there was the phone call from a local activist who said he

doubted that a letter writer who appeared in the paper a couple days

before actually did exist.

I was pretty sure we had called to verify the name as per our

policy, I told the caller, but could I be absolutely sure?

Unfortunately not.

Deliberate write-in campaigns to fool or confuse our readers are

typically easy to spot, but it’s not so easy when a handful of

people, who all share the same point of view, write letters to

express their displeasure with a certain person or with our news

coverage. Or if someone claims to be someone they are not and manages

to keep the charade going, even when we make the phone call.

Just to be clear, we do have some rules of the road here.

There are a couple of ways to get your commentary in the paper in

a couple different forms.

Letters to the editor and Readers Hotline calls are smaller and

concise, about 250 to 500 words. Community Commentaries or Rebuttals

can be longer, usually 500 to 750 words.

In all cases, though, we require that the letter writer provide a

name, first and last, address, city of residence and phone number for

verification.

And we will call to verify a letter writer’s existence or to

double check the spelling of their names, especially when our

suspicions are high or if the writer has never written to the paper

before.

Do letters to the editor get edited?

Yes, they do. That is often a common misperception that since it

is the writer’s opinion, we don’t have to edit the letters or

commentary on the page.

But that’s not true. Letter writers don’t always stick with just

their opinions. Letters are often peppered with the writer’s version

of the facts, facts that we need to verify and, if we can’t verify,

we edit out of the letter.

We typically edit letters for other things as well. If a letter is

mean-spirited, or is full of name-calling, or is laced with racist or

bigoted language, we will either edit out the offending words or kill

the letter.

We require decorum and taste and decency on our editorial pages.

Of course, I’m only speaking for the Daily Pilot. Not every newspaper

has the same rules on letters.

But for the most part, if someone wants to get their opinion

across, it really is a very simple: Don’t make up names, don’t make

up facts, don’t become part of a write-in campaign and don’t stoop to

name calling.

Keep those letters coming.