How to calm irate callers.

THE EARLY-MORNING CALLER is steamed over an editorial urging a waiting period on gun purchases: "You refused to run my editorial on the subject," he fumes, "and here you have a long article that is totally unfair and biased. Where's my freedom of the press?"

Here is a subscription cancellation about to happen. How to avoid it?

First, stifle the urge to straighten out terminology. In more tranquil moments, the complainant might care that his "editorial" was really a letter and the paper's "article" was really an editorial. But the red flags are "totally unfair and biased" and alleged hogging of freedom of the press. It's either satisfy the caller -- but quick -- or end up telling your boss how another customer has bailed out.

The first part is easy. It entails digging out the reader's unpublished "editorial" and explaining why is wasn't used. (Over-length is the usual reason.)

Next comes explaining freedom of the press. A shortcut -- one to avoid -- is telling an already irate caller that the one enjoying "freedom of the press" is the one who owns the press. But say that and you imply that you approve of a caste system.

The key issue is not the Founder's intent, but rather the caller's desire for equal space -- space that he would now use to blast the paper. A tactful approach is to get the complainant on your side.

Show how you routinely shoehorn letters into the page so as to accommodate every possible letter writer. Guarantee that while you can't allot his letter as much space as taken up by the offending editorial, you have every intention of running it. (Stop short of a guarantee. Profanity or some other problem could render it unusable.)

Next, ask your critic what happens when he has a gripe about the local supermarket. Does the manager post his complaint on the small bulletin board in the lobby? Point out that the newspaper is the only business that disseminates complaints about itself -- and not just on lobby bulletin boards but in every copy of that day's edition. Not many TV stations air complaints. Even if they do, the gripes are written on the wind.

The idea is to convince the complainant that even under necessarily selective freedom of the press, your employer gives the reader as much freedom as possible. If the caller gripes about the word limit, remind him that the limit allows space for other readers to express themselves.

If he keeps going back to the Founders' aim in guaranteeing freedoms (firearms enthusiasts are big on this), remind him of what one of the Founders, Ben Franklin, said in his salad days as a Philadelphia publisher and opinion page editor: An opinion page is not a stage coach for anyone to ride. Then tell the caller how wrong old Ben was. You are doing your best to guarantee a ride for virtually everyone.

NCEW member Jerry Elsea is editorial page editor of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.