Editorial – re: Letters to the Editor from Elaine Willis and Robert Schofield
Anmore Times Editorial Team Comments -
We would like to offer clarification regarding some issues that come up from time to time with respect to The Anmore Times newsletter and The Anmore Times Online, as in the two letters below.
As has been stated many times, The Anmore Times newsletter receives a grant from the Village of Anmore to cover the cost of the amount of printing ink and paper used for the official village announcements and information. The village is not responsible for, nor does it have any influence over other printed content in the newsletter.
The Anmore Times Online receives no funding from the Village of Anmore. It does not seek to be an exact copy of the Anmore Times newsletter; it is a supplement to it.
Over the years, we have sometimes been criticised for being biased toward the council, and sometimes for being biased against it. Editorial decisions are made as a group and we have always done our best to do what we think is right.
We have always encouraged letters to the editor and online reader comments. Most letters and comments sent to us we simply print. The handful of times we have refused to print material sent to us have been after serious editorial discussions as a group. There have also been times, particularly with the online discussions, when we decided that a certain issue had been covered sufficiently. Always, the goal has been to give access to public information and to facilitate community building.
For election biographies and other political material, the Anmore Times newsletter gave each candidate one half page free with the option to pay for further space if desired. All election material sent to the editors of The Anmore Times newsletter by the candidates were printed in the newsletter. It did not automatically mean that this material would also be posted in the Anmore Times Online.
Tracy Green gave up her position as editor of the Anmore Times Online when she decided to run for Anmore Council. There are temporary volunteers writing and posting articles, but we continue to look for Anmore residents willing to help with various tasks. As in any volunteer organisation, things do not always go as smoothly as we would like, but we do our best. We apologise for any misunderstandings that occurred during the incredibly busy election time.
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Letters to the Editor:
Dear Mr. Schofield,
What you are suggesting above is not possible. There is not a newspaper in existence that prints “ALL the letters, comments, opinions” that it receives. This is because many forms of commentary are generally held to be inadmissible. For example, anonymous commentary is not admissible, commentary that arrives under various pseudonyms from a single url is not admissible, commentary containing ad hominem attacks is not admissible, commentary containing profanity is not admissible, unintelligible commentary is not admissible & etc. To print such commentary would be foolhardy at best, libellous at worst. All editors, not just those at the Anmore Times, must engage discretionary tactics to protect themselves from falling victim to charges of slander & etc. Furthermore, I sincerely hope that you and others of like mind can refrain from stomping your feet about “bias” long enough to acknowledge that bias is the inheritance of humankind. We are all biased in our opinions, an unbiased opinion is an oxymoron. The best that we can hope for is balance in reporting, not the annihilation of bias. Editorial balance is a precarious dance and I commend the editors of the Anmore Times for attempting to achieve such balance in print and especially for exposing themselves to the criticism of the biased masses.
Sincerely, Tammy
Highly Rated:
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