http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001CeP

Interesting that most of you hide behind your email addresses.

You also failed to mention that our newspaper printed all the responses to the guest column in question. Everyone on your comment area seems to agree. Must easier and less challenging that way. Plus, you don't have to worry about a polite method of discussing differing views.

I think many of you may have valid information to share, please go back and review your responses though, you were too concerned with being cute and talking about how superior you are to actually share those ideas.

FYI, before our newspaper website was launched in March we did print articles re:

Y2K preparedness, particularly one from an ISP that took up as much or more room on a page then he one written by Mr. Purvis. That article was published in the news section of the paper.

Please also recognize the views opposing Mr. Purvis that were published and offered information, not merely insults.

I noticed one of your writers mentioned the proofreading of the Purvis article.

I guess I have what might be a different theory on that (you are certainly welcome to disagree).

My thought is, if someone writes a letter to the editor or guest opinion and I clean it all up, it changes the way the audience evaluates the writer, takes it out of context. If it were the work of one of our newspaper writers it would be edited and reviewed for the style and content consistent with our new writing.

Also, regarding the writer that disagreed with our policy of requiring street addresses for letters to the editor  I will just offer this thought  many times in both large cities and small towns there are more than one or two people with the same name. When people are writing about an issue it helps readers identify where the concerns are coming from, and it protects the "innocent" the people with the same name that did not write the letter.

Mr. Heller, I thank you for your polite correspondence regarding the column and your direct replies.

Kind regards to all. Mary Sanford Oceana's Herald-Journal Editor

-- Mary Sanford (ohj@voyager.net), September 03, 1999.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), September 03, 1999

Answers

"Interesting that most of you hide behind your email addresses."

Interesting that YOU hide behind YOUR email address.

How come your publication -- the ONLY one I've EVER seen that insists on publishing the HOME street addresses of to-the-editor writers -- doesn't publish the home addresses of you, your "contributing writers", or your other staff members mentioned by name?

Your shabby excuse -- "When people are writing about an issue it helps readers identify where the concerns are coming from, and it protects the 'innocent' the people with the same name that did not write the letter" -- doesn't wash, as the principle would apply in both cases. A switchboard.com search returns *six* instances of "Mary Sanford" in Michigan. How are the "innocent" to be "protected" when they read *your* tripe?

"You also failed to mention that our newspaper printed all the responses to the guest column in question."

A lie. You did not print Steve Heller's response. I know, as I am a subscriber, and I checked. You included it on the website, big deal. The *local* community -- your bread and butter, presumably -- reads the *newspaper*. The phrase, "our newspaper printed" means exactly what it says, and the statement it attempts to support is politely put, a lie.

>Everyone on your comment area seems to agree. Must easier and less challenging that way. Plus, you don't have to worry about a polite method of discussing differing views.

We also don't have to put up with the chilling effect of having our home addresses divulged for the whole world if we choose to exercise our right to engage in the public debate.

>FYI, before our newspaper website was launched in March we did print articles re:

>Y2K preparedness, particularly one from an ISP that took up as much or more room on a page then he one written by Mr. Purvis. That article was published in the news section of the paper.

You seem to have forgotten to mention that assinine piece of self- puffery by the executive from the Shelby State Bank a few months ago.

>Also, regarding the writer that disagreed with our policy of requiring street addresses for letters to the editor  I will just offer this thought  many times in both large cities and small towns there are more than one or two people with the same name. When people are writing about an issue it helps readers identify where the concerns are coming from, and it protects the "innocent" the people with the same name that did not write the letter.

That is bullshit, plain and simple. My letters to the editor have been published in papers ranging from The Morning Sun (Mt. Pleasant) to The Detroit News. In *no* case has *any* publication required me to submit to having my private home street address divulged as a condition of voicing my opinion.

In addition, I'm a published author ("Special Edition Using VBScript", Que, the tutorial presentation software included on the CD that accompanied "The Delphi 2 CD Tutor", Que, numerous feature articles in VBPJ (The Visual Basic Programmer's Jounal"), numerous columns in VBPJ, and, I'm a Contributing Editor for VBPJ.

None of those publishers have *ever* required me to submit to having my private home address divulged to the readers.

Why do I want to maintain my privacy?

None of your business, that's why!

In the past, letters that I've had published in *other* newspapers have raised controversy, and resulted in threats against my life and property. Should a reader write a letter to *your* paper, and, should the same problem arise, the would-be perpetrators would have no problem finding their victims, thanks to YOUR insistence on disclosing the private information of the writers.

Just out of curiosity, what does your attorney tell you your liability would be should that nightmare scenario play out? I have no doubt as to how *my* attorney would prosecute the case if *I* were your victim!

In closing, I'll add that as a public figure, I take the effort to maintain a Post Office Box and unlisted telephone number. While this protected me from the people who threatened me in the past, they *did* manage to find my elderly *father's* listed phone number, and phone death threats to *him* to "relay" to me.

It's a dangerous world we live in, and your newspaper's stupid policy -- unheard of *anywhere* else to my knowledge -- serves primarily to "protect" you from having knowledgeable resources within the Oceana County area -- such as myself -- from contributing to the Op Ed page.

You may consider that a gain, you may consider it a loss. I consider it a no-brainer. The tradeoff is simply stated, not worth it to me.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), September 03, 1999.