Letters Policy The Gazette wants your opinions on public issues. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and fairness, and we will run no more than one letter per month from the same writer
And who decides what is 'fair'? The media, who supposidly represents and fights for Freedom of Speech, must only apply to 'them'.
The Gazette should in no way, no how edit, change, add to, take away from, decide what and who's letters get printed or to place themselves in a position to decide exactly 'what is fair'.
Their bias has been obvious in the past.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Daily Gazette, Censorship and slanted reporting May 23rd, 2008
Editorial:
Several people we’ve encountered have discussed in public forums their dealings with The Daily Gazette Editorial office, specifically when submitting letters to the editor. Included were concerns about the Gazette specifically asking for letter submissions to be substantiated or proven. One person claims that “The Gazette clearly told me that they were pro-Metroplex. They asked me to edit my letter to them regarding the finances of Schenectady.” Another states “I received an email on Monday from the Gazette asking me for evidence to support the claims made in my … letter”.
The Gazette’s published policy for letters says:
DailyGazette.com and The Daily Gazette want your opinions on public issues. There is no strict word limit for letters to the editor, but letters under 200 words are preferred. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and fairness, and we will run no more than one letter per month from the same writer. Your name, address and daytime phone number are required for verification.
According to an email sent to Brad Littlefield from Art Clayman at the Daily Gazette states “Could you tell me specifically which loans you are talking about in fourth graf, and where i can find them in meeting minutes.”
Mr Littlefield, as demonstrated by the email conversations he’s forwarded to this office, provided clear and convincing opinions and facts gathered from the Schenectady Metroplex website.
The Gazette has subsequently contacted Mr Littlefield and asked “for permission to publish my submitted Letter to the Editor as an online letter on their web site.”
Rather than publishing his comments in a public paper, where a majority of comments are PRO Metroplex, as the Gazette itself is, they chose to bury it in an online posting obscured on their website. This is more evidence that the Gazette is unwilling to report news and only deliver what is fed to them by the local political machines. The Gazette in this instance clearly did not want to be bothered with doing their own fact checking, instead placing the burden of proof on the person submitting an opinion via a “letter to the editor”.
We find this action appauling. That the Gazette is using their position as the County of Schenectady and City of Schenectady “newspaper of record” to force people to edit their opinion letters to conform with their (Gazette’s) feelings and opinions is completely contradictry to freedom of speech. It’s a slap in the face to the letter writer and should not be tolerated.
I’d encourage our readers to contact the Gazette and let them know that freedom of speech rules exist in this country - people have a right to their opinion, and if the Gazette continues to censor free speech in this manner, they risk further jeopardizing their subscriber base, and patronage to their advertisers. If their attitude toward censorship doesn’t change, I would encourage you to start a self imposed boycott of companies that advertise in the Gazette - being sure to notify those companies that you won’t be supporting them based on this Gazette policy.
Can't take credit for the above letter. It wasn't submitted by me. I was contacted by someone, who I did not and (still) do not know, asking if it would be okay to quote my posts on the Rotterdam forum. I thought it a responsible and thoughtful thing to do to seek my permission. I consented as the post that he or she had identified was factual in content, not simply opinion. I followed up by providing copies of email correspondences (which I archived) to and from the Gazette.
The letter writer is correct. The Gazette editorial department should not be censoring the content of submitted letters. Neither should the letter writer be required to provide substantiation for statements made therein. After all the department is called the Opinion desk.
If their attitude toward censorship doesn’t change, I would encourage you to start a self imposed boycott of companies that advertise in the Gazette - being sure to notify those companies that you won’t be supporting them based on this Gazette policy.
I like this idea! I know people that cancelled their subscription to the Gazette a long time ago. I say that everyone that gets the Gazette, to cancel it. Or share one with a neighbor or co-worker. We need to stop their foolish political propaganda.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I agree, Bumble, that may jsut be something that we need to do. I did notice, however, that the Gazette has different editions that come out in different areas. I haven't figured out if they all have the same stories, just rearranged, or if they have different stories altogether. I have a coworker that comes in from Saratoga County and some of the front page articles (not usually the headline) are different. I didn't catch if the story that was on the front page in one edition was somewhere in the local section in the other, but I don't think that it was. And I'm not a subscriber at this time, I go to the store and pay the front page price when I get it.
BTW, if you haven't already been to the Schenectady Today website ( http://www.schenectadytoday.com ), I would encourage you to visit. Among the stories recently published are:
"Library renovations/expansion limited" - 24 May 2008
"Metroplex bonding extension - 23 May 2008"
"Daily Gazette, Censorship and slanted reporting - 23 May 2008"
I don't know who owns/runs this site, but appreciate that they are providing an alternate source for news and opinion.
Anyone have any contact information for this site? I'd like to suggest that they get some pics of Schenectady rather than those plain stock images that are in there - I've got some I could let them use.
The bottom of the page says "Cutline by Chris Pearson" - I don't think that's the site owner tho - is it?
I don't look at the pictures. I read the contents. I always appreciate another local outlet for information. We need all the input that we can get these days.
The e-mail address below is the one from which I received correspondence:
editor@schenectadytoday.com
In response to my email stating that the pictures are of NYC and not of Schenectady, I received the following:
"... We are a new site, as you can tell, and these are stock photographs ... Now that our reporting and editorial staff is on board, we'll be canvassing the community for local pictures to replace those on the site currently. If you have any, or know of anyone willing to provide artwork for the site, please let us know"
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