How sad that editorials need defending.To quiet a voice for passion and outrage leaves silence indeed. I am asked to defend the editorial page. How sad. How sad it needs defending. How sad it needs defining. How sad it needs debating. The editorial page is the heart and the soul of the newspaper. It is the place for passion and outrage, for humor and kindness, for wisdom and caring. It is the place for the pure idea, the intriguing thought, the graceful phrase. It is the place for hot debate and cool analysis. It is the place for truth; it is the place for fun. It is the voice of the institution. To stifle it, to dilute it, to cheapen cheap·en v. cheap·ened, cheap·en·ing, cheap·ens v.tr. 1. To make cheap or cheaper. 2. it is to stifle, to dilute, to cheapen the institution itself. A newspaper without an editorial page? It is a buggy without a horse. A steak without a sauce. A dog without a name. Listen to this: "A bully by nature, a mountebank by instinct, a senator by choice. Conceited and vain as the peacock is, but not proud as the nobleman is, for a choice spirit would be too proud to assail as·sail tr.v. as·sailed, as·sail·ing, as·sails 1. To attack with or as if with violent blows; assault. 2. To attack verbally, as with ridicule or censure. See Synonyms at attack. 3. the weak. He is bombastic and blustery blus·ter v. blus·tered, blus·ter·ing, blus·ters v.intr. 1. To blow in loud, violent gusts, as the wind during a storm. 2. a. To speak in a loudly arrogant or bullying manner. , but is wanting in high courage.... Thus this preposterous blob excites our pity if not our respect. . . ." Or this: "But if there is freedom, folly will die of its own poison, and the wisdom will survive. . . . You say that freedom of utterance is not for time of stress, and I reply with the sad truth that only in time of stress is freedom of utterance in danger. . . . Reason never has failed men. Only force and repression have made the wrecks in the world." Or this: "But if we think the present situation is serious, as indeed it is, we should take a long, hard look at the future. It can, and probably will, get infinitely worse - unless we have the necessary character and guts to do something about it - and change the things that need to be changed." Editorials all. Grover Cleveland Hall ridiculed Senator Tom Heflin in the Montgomery Advertiser The Montgomery Advertiser is a daily newspaper located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829. History The newspaper began publication in 1829 called The Planter's Gazette. It became the Montgomery Advertiser in 1833. In 1903, R.F. in 1927. William Allen White For other persons of the same name, see William White. William Allen White (Born February 10, 1868 in Emporia, Kansas - died January 31, 1944) was a renowned American newspaper editor. defended free speech for railroad strikers in the Emporia Gazette The Emporia Gazette is a daily newspaper in Emporia, Kansas. The newspaper rose to national attention after William Allen White bought the newspaper for $3,000 in 1895. in 1923. Hazel Brannon Smith  Hazel Freeman Brannon Smith (February 4, 1914, Alabama City, Alabama - May 15, 1994, Cleveland, Tennessee), the owner and editor of four weekly decried racial intolerance in Mississippi's Lexington
Advertiser in 1963.
You who would save money on newsprint would quiet those voices? You who would yield to community pressure would still those writers? You who would embrace the trend of the moment would stifle those thoughts? How sad. How sad for your readers. How sad for your newspapers. And how odd that some newspapers cutting back on their editorial pages are the very newspapers embracing this goofy thing called "community journalism," a loopy idea that calls for involvement by the news pages, opinion in the news pages, leadership through the news pages. Is not the editorial page the very definition of community journalism? Does it not involve itself in the issues of the town, in the joys and sadnesses of the readers? Does it not offer opinions on the issues of the day, on the triumphs and failures of the times? Does it not lead on the issues of the moment, on the questions and quarrels of the town? The editorial page - the editorial page with editorials on local issues, with thought on local matters, with opinions on local disputes - is your newspaper. The editorial page is your town. Without it, your readers have no compass. Without it, your newspaper has no heart. Without it, your town has no soul. How sad. Michael Gartner Michael Gartner (born October 25, 1938, in Des Moines, Iowa) is an American journalist and businessman. He is also President of the Iowa Board of Regents. He is a graduate of Carleton College and the New York University School of Law. is editor and co-owner of the Daily Tribune in Ames, Iowa Ames is a city located in the central part of the U.S. state of Iowa, about 30 miles north of Des Moines in Story County. It is the principal city of the 'Ames, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses all of Story County, Iowa and which, when combined with the , and a columnist for USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. . |
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