Our goal for this page: A free (and mostly civil) exchange of ideas

By Judy Sly
jsly@modbee.com

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I wish I had saved the voice mail so I could share the woman's exact words with you, but suffice it to say she was angry.

We had run, over the previous couple of days, several letters to the editor that she considered Obama-bashing, and she figured that was strong evidence that we'd become "a right-wing extremist" newspaper. She left no name or number, but I don't think she really wanted to talk to me directly anyway.

Early last month, I spoke with another woman upset that we had run two letters critical of Israel on the same day. Why, she asked, didn't you run a pro-Israel letter with them? I told her the answer: Because we didn't have any pro-Israel letters at that moment.

There's an ebb and flow to the letters that we receive, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to present a balance of views on any given day. During a hot election season, we often get a balanced mix. That was the case last fall with Proposition 8, for example.

Today, less than two weeks before the May 19 special election, we haven't gotten a single letter supporting any of the six propositions on the ballot. So we run the ones in opposition that we get, and hope that supporters respond.

On this page, we give people a chance to comment on all sorts of public issues. We give writers a lot of latitude to subscribe to conspiracy theories, to get strangely angry over little things and even to reach conclusions that don't quite make sense to us. That's what free speech is about.

What we don't allow in print are letters that are purely personal attacks on other letter writers. For one thing, there's a potential libel issue. For another, we want to promote civil debate. There's infinite room on the Internet for all sorts of less-than-civil ranting.

While I have your ear (or eyes) on the subject of letters, let me offer a few thoughts to supplement the guidelines that we publish daily:

- It's not unusual for a letter to show up as one of the popular (most read) items on modbee.com or as one of the most-commented-on items. See the the right side of the modbee.com home page for letters that are getting lots of readership online.

-Because of the volume, we limit letter writers to one published letter per month.

-While a criminal case is pending, we do not print letters that argue the guilt or innocence of the defendant(s). Once a verdict is in, we will print letters commenting on the case. As regular readers know, we regularly run letters on how long it takes for some cases to come to trial and for the death penalty to be carried out.

-If you have e-mail, please use that method to submit your items to letters@modbee.com. It allows us to get your letter in more quickly and saves us the time of typing it. We continue to accept letters by mail. Also please do not send letters to individual e-mail accounts. They are not checked when we are on vacation or out sick. The letters e-mail is checked six days a week.

-We welcome readers' views -- but only in their own words. Please do not copy and paste "talking points" off Web sites and submit them as your own. Likewise, please don't forward e-mails that you received from elsewhere. Often, they are urban legends that have been circulating for months or years. A useful place to check the accuracy of such information is www.snopes.com.

Most of all, though, please keep writing.

Sly is editor of the Opinions pages. Contact her at jsly@modbee.com or 578-2317.