How To Write A Letter To The Editor, part 4

A good editorial/opinion section will present a wide range of opinions, and balance out an editorial with a counterpoint and/or letters. You can tell a bad editorial page if most of the columnists agree with the editorial and most of the letters agree with the columnists.

There are numberous legitimate reasons a newspaper doesn't print a letter, and I don't blame them for not running my epistles every time I take finger to keyboard. Nonetheless, as I've described in previous columns, your letter is more likely to be printed if you are grammatically correct, polite, factual, short and to the point.

The newspaper will write its own headline for any letter.

My local newspaper is the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It's a pretty good newspaper, but tends to lean a bit to the right nowadays (and you can tell by how many dittoheads start off their letter by accusing them of being liberal...) and is usually a day or two behind in publishing stories or columnists that appeared in other papers first. I regularly write letters and call Lou Gelfand, the paper's reader representative. Lou is pretty good, and his column in the opinion section of the the Sunday paper is worth reading, though he definitely has a right wing slant.

What follows are some of my letters to the Star Tribune, as I wrote them, not necessarily as they were published. I also included my phone number and city (though they know who I am...) I usually don't keep a clipping or the whole paper, so most of the historical perspective is from memory, which is why I'll run these in reverse chronological order.

[Sent 5/29/03, with the subject line "Bush lied to our troops"]

To the Mpls Star Tribune re 5/29/03 cover story http://www.startribune.com/stories/1762/3907255.html , relating to the larger story detailed in the British press by http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,956127,00.html :

 

The deception surrounding the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch and the shameful photo-op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln mask a deeper disgrace: George W. Bush lied to our troops about the reasons to invade Iraq, and has used America's pride in our military to cover up his misearable failure at home and abroad. Bush's criminal negligence before 9/11 and his lack of moral leadership in the failed War on Terror have been abetted by Karl Rove's cynical manipulation of a news media that long ago sold out to conservative ideologues. America, and our brave fighting forces, cannot afford to be led by people who spend more time listening to hate radio than they spend talking to their families. The lack of investigation into the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is a major scandal, one of many that has been suppressed for too long. The Bush administration must be held accountable. Impeachment now.

This was published June 2, 2003, unedited (minus the reference urls) with the headline "1 vote for impeachment". The reference urls were not only for the newspaper, but for anyone else I might copy the e-mail to. I haven't checked, but newspaper articles tend to get archived quickly and might not be up.

As usual, I got several responses. From the left, people called and left messages on my answering machine, identifying themselves and thanking me for "a wonderful letter". I had a greater than usual number of "uh..." hangups, and an insulting postcard from someone, unsigned. With very few exceptions, whetehr they agree or disagree with your position, a liberal will identify him or herself, but the cowardly conservatives will be incredibly nasty and scatalogical and refuse to identify themselves. This time, I didn't get any death threats.

 

[Sent 5/21/03 with the subject line, "Being ashamed", after a GOP state legislator made Trent Lott-like remarks and was defended by the racist right and a Democratic staffer (not even an elected official) correctly called the remarks racist and the Dems tripped over themselves apologizing.]

So a Republican makes the most vile, hateful remarks and doesn't apologize and the Republicans don't hold him accountable. A Democrat correctly calls him on his intolerant remarks, apologizes and the Democrats have the integrity to act like adults. Republicans -- and all Minnesotans -- should be ashamed of Arlon Lindner and Democrats -- and all Minnesotans -- should be proud of Lou Harvin for standing up to the hatemongers.

This one did not get printed, but several other letters made the same point. Iirc, there was a counterpoint that defended Lindner and took Harvin to task in this same period.

 

[Sent 5/14/03 with the subject line "Spurned by a Republican". I couldn't resist contrasting the Republican-dominated legislative session with Bill Bennett's self-inflicted wounds.]

More guns, longer bar hours, fewer police. Less funding for schools, roads and battered women's shelters. Minnesota is becoming a Republican's wet dream. And yet, our slot machines aren't good enough for William Bennett. He has to go to New Jersey to lose at least $8 million. Does he like the salad bar better? Are the drinks stronger? Aren't our right-wingers gullible enough? Why are we spurned by the top conservative scold? C'mon Bill, come to Minnesota and yank OUR chain!

This didn't get published, though other letters commented on the subjects at hand.

 

[Sent 4/27/03 with the subject line "Lindner's free speech" after a letter writer defended the legislator's racist remarks.]

Oho! Now the moral relativists are claiming that Arlon Lindner's hateful comments should be protected as "free speech", as are those of John Rocker, Trent Lott and the KKK. I won't believe he's anything but a pathetic bigot until he visits Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon at the Baseball Hall of Fame and goes to a Dixie Chicks concert.

Surprise! This one didn't get printed either.

 

[Sent 3/12/03 with the subject line "Kersten should be fired". This was an important one, as I caught one of the most egregiously awful members of the Taliban Wing of the GOP in an lie so bad she should be fired for it. Hence all the supporting urls (which I didn't expect them to print); I wanted them to give Kersten the bounce.]

re: http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/3746350.html

I don't expect morals from conservatives, but I do expect ethics from the Star Tribune.

 

Katherine Kersten out-and-out lied about the reason Zacarias Moussaoui's hard drive wasn't searched. She should be fired, and the Star Tribune should run a correction. The real reason is that George W. Bush reversed the Clinton anti-terrorist directives and John Ashcroft cut $58 million from the FBI anti-terrorism budget. This is part of the series of bungled conservative establishment directives that was the reason the head of FBI anti-terrorism resigned. A few days later, John O'Neill perished in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. This criminal negligence should lead to Bush's impeachment. Instead, right-wing apologists are forced to lie and lie again.

 

Kersten's lack of professionalism has been evident for a long time. Now, she should resign or be fired. There's no excuse.

 

Supporting urls:

"In August 2001, FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill resigned from his post over George W. Bush's policy on terrorism and Osama bin Laden. Specifically, O'Neill's department was told to "back off" their bin Laden and Al Queda investigations while the Bush administration negotiated with the Taliban. O'Neill became the security chief of the World Trade Center - where he died during the events of 9/11."
http://www.rememberjohn.com/

 

Clinton handed over plans for war on al-Queda in Jan. 2001, but Rice and Bush just ignored them. "Some members of the outgoing Administration got the sense that the Bush team thought the Clintonites had become obsessed with terrorism. "It was clear," says one, "that this was not the same priority to them that it was to us." Long article from Time magazine August 2002:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,333835,00.html

 

Greg Palast BBC interview with counter-terrorism expert Joe Trento, author of The Secret History of the CIA, detailing some of the reversals made under Bush.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/newsnight/1645527.stm

 

CNN analysis on Oct. 18, 2001 showing how the conservatives have no shame in blaming Clinton for Bush's faults.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/10/18/column.billpress/

 

Truthout article detailing some of the Bush administration's meetings with the Taliban pre-9/11.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/11.17A.Oil.Taliban.htm

 

Another FBI Agent Blows the Whistle: FBI and Justice Dept. shut down leads of investigation started in 1998. Long article about following and arresting suspected terrorists in the US in the 90s and current blocking of this effort, from August 2002:
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/37/news-crogan.php

 

Under Bush administration, CIA ordered to give visas to Mohammaed Atta and others, when embassy didn't want to give them:
http://www.odwyerpr.com/0620whatwentwrong.htm (requires registration, and the url might have moved)

 

Instead of being open and honest, the FBI has gone to court to cover up their bungling in the Moussaui case:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/29/politics/29INTE.html

 

Do you need more?

 

Angry at the lying right,

This one they printed, but edited. They didn't print the supporting urls, of course. They didn't print the ending lines (and I forget if they printed the first line about not expecting morals from conservatives), and I did a column for Bartcop-E on the subject already. The editors did change "Kersten out-and-out lied" to "Kersten misled", which was pretty bad, though it they did keep the part about her needing to be fired. And, while I don't think they fired her, her role at the paper has diminished and I haven't seen her column on the main editorial page since. I don't recall that the paper ran a correction for the horrible mistake she made.

Corrections: Doing the aforementioned article for Bartcop-E, I discovered a bit of discrepency in my letter. While Kersten's column was completely wrong and it was irresponsible of her to ignore Ashcroft's cutting of the anti-terrorist budget, his budget cuts were proposed after Moussaoui's hard drive wasn't searched. Ashcroft was to blame for shifting money and personnel away from terrorist investigations and under Janet Reno, Moussaui's hard drive would have been searched, but I should have been clearer.

I'll keep printing more of my letters, used and unused, going back in time until either I run out or they subject matter gets too old to bother citing. I hope potential letter writers use my experience to help them get their point across in a way that newspapers can handle.

Demi Moore

from that Mad Cat, JD

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