Rochesterturning reports that today's Democrat and Chronicle printed a letter to the editor with a major error. The letter accused Eric Massa's staff of using sealed court documents to embarrass Randy Kuhl. Of course, the staff of Sam Barend, Kuhl's 2004 rival, did that, not Eric Massa. Massa has gone out of his way to avoid the issue of Kuhl's divorce, which I agree is not germane to the election.
Longtime readers might notice that this is the first mention of a letter to the editor in this blog. That's on purpose, because I find the letters sections of newspapers pretty much useless. Even the reasonable letters are edited down so much that they're almost unintelligible.
As for whether the D&C has a duty to fact-check letters they publish, I think that's a gray area. Whether or not they should have caught this error, they do have a duty to print one of the inevitable corrections from their readers, and to allow those corrections to be long enough to fully explain the issue.
Update: According to Rochesterturning, the D&C printed a correction in their paper edition.
Update: Eric Massa's letter to the editor was published on August 2. (Thanks to Rochesterturning, who reads the LTE page.)
Comments
Over the years I've had many letters to the editor published. Not a single word was changed in any of them.
So maybe I just have an irrational prejudice against LTEs. Wouldn't be the first one.
The error would not have happened in the southern tier. Probably because we only have one congressman and focus on that person. If the error had been caught (and all letters are read) then the writer (who has to provide his name and a phone number for verification) would have been asked about it.
I've never had any of mine edited in the southern tier papers, but do agree that most of the other letters are nearly unintelligible (joke).
Most papers print the maximum number of words allowed. Some people will send a letter with twice the number of words in it and the editors may eliminate what they feel is not as pertinent to the letter.
Some people will send a letter with twice the number of words in it and the editors may eliminate what they feel is not as pertinent to the letter.
In my experience, they often ask the reader to edit the number of words down himself.
Having never written a LTE, I bow to your collective experience on length.
Elmer, I agree that a Southern Tier paper wouldn't have printed it. The D&C letter was probably green lighted by a newbie from out of town. There seem to be a lot of them who cycle through on their way to fame and fortune at another Gannett paper.
Speaking of fame and fortune, do you know what Spector is doing in Albany? Is he going to be a Gannett Albany correspondent or work for another paper there?
I have no idea, but he was pretty good and will be missed.
Interesting newspaper note I had almost forgot about - Gannett used to own one paper in Rochester and one in Albany (The Knickerbocker News). Hearst also owned one in both cities - They swapped papers so one could have a monopoly in Rochester, one in Albany.
Joe Spector's work has been great!