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Opinion Page dialogue builds understanding and trust

Last Friday, we printed a letter to the editor from Joe Spadaro of Saranac Lake, who said too much of the Enterprise’s content was negative toward President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik. On Tuesday, we printed a letter from John Fik of Vermontville, agreeing with Mr. Spadaro. We ran both the day after we received them, without an editor’s note in our defense.

Their views are real, whether we share them or not, and for us to block them would be unfair.

After substantial email correspondence, we sat down for a talk with Mr. Spadaro and his wife Wednesday, and we’re meeting with Mr. Fik today. We’ve known the Spadaros for a long time and respect them as cheerful boosters of the Saranac Lake community. Joe, now retired, was a well-liked chemistry professor at North Country Community College and is an excellent carpenter — as well as a builder of beautiful Adirondack guideboats.

In this follow-up, we learned specifically what in the paper irked these men, and we got to explain how our process works. It built understanding and trust.

Local news is our top priority, so we were reassured that neither man had much criticism for our local news reporting — and we pressed them on that point. The only thing they told us they disliked was us publishing a photo of a picketer against Rep. Stefanik at the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival parade, which they thought should be apolitical. Perhaps it should be, but in fact, a few protesters were there. They weren’t enough of a presence for us to include them in a four-page parade photo essay we printed Monday, but a few days later, the picture appropriately illustrated a story about Rep. Stefanik firing back at protesters’ attempts “to hijack and ambush community events for the sole purpose of political theater.”

Ultimately, what most got under the skin of Mr. Spadaro was syndicated cartoons and columns on the Opinion page. Both he and Mr. Fik were especially outraged by a cartoon depicting President Trump as Adolf Hitler.

We found it helps if we explain how we select that content.

Of course, the Opinion page is just that — people throwing in their two cents. The reason we dedicate an entire page to this every day, without advertisements, is not to run content from syndicates; it’s to make room for local people’s views. We’re blessed to receive so many letters to the editor and Guest Commentaries from our readers, and we also offer an official Enterprise opinion five days a week (Tuesdays we run the Web Poll results instead), usually written by the managing editor, but sometimes by the publisher or an editor from another paper owned by our parent company. While Mr. Fik disagreed with our stance on refugee policy and Mr. Spadaro was frustrated by a wave of letters criticizing President Trump and Rep. Stefanik, local opinions weren’t their main beef. They know we’re willing to publish their letters, too.

We use syndicated content as filler when we don’t have enough local opinions to fill the page that day. Through a package deal, we have access to a range of columns and cartoons. The managing editor (or the news editor if the managing editor is off that day) selects from this pool. He tries to offer a balance of political views so readers can know what various kinds of people are thinking. He looks for material that is thought-provoking, perhaps surprising.

The pundits he tends to gravitate toward, on the right-of-center side, are George Will, Cal Thomas, Pat Buchanan, Michael Barone and Rich Lowry. On the left, he tends to run Froma Harrop, Leonard Pitts Jr. and Mark Shields. We also sometimes run Kathleen Parker, who hovers in the middle, though she’s no fan of President Trump.

The same process is applied to cartoons, which are signed by their creators: John Deering and Steve Breen often make fun of Mr. Trump; Gary Varvel, Chip Bok, Bob Gorrell and Steve Kelly lean Republican; and Michael Ramirez and Steve Benson fire from the right and left wings, respectively. Mr. Benson drew the Trump-Hitler cartoon.

There’s room to disagree about what goes too far, but we don’t apologize for offering some provocative viewpoints, whether it’s Mr. Pitts calling the Trump administration the “Fourth Reich” or Mr. Buchanan’s ongoing Russian apologist campaign. It would be a disservice to readers, intellectual freedom and democracy to only chose “safe” opinions. It’s valuable to know what people are thinking; for instance, years of reading Mr. Buchanan’s world view prepared us somewhat for Mr. Trump’s.

The editor also picks plenty of syndicated content that seeks common ground, which we think is important. If we have a primary mission as editorial writers, it’s to help people live with each other.

We Americans are deeply divided these days. President Trump last week called the media — singling out the New York Times, CNN, NBC News “and many more”“the enemy of the American people” for their tough reporting on him. Whether you agree with him or not — we don’t, for the record — it’s a terrible sign. We wish the Trump administration and the Washington press corps could get to the same point of mutual respect as we did with these two local critics.

In closing, the Opinion page is for you. Its real estate is mostly reserved for your letters, essays and even cartoons, free of charge. We don’t pick and choose among letters; we run every one we receive, provided it meets guidelines printed daily on the Opinion page. The more you submit, the less syndicated content we’ll run.

This open forum is one of the most important services a newspaper provides its home community. Please keep using it.

Share your opinion on this page

Submit it on our website: Click “Submit news” under the Enterprise nameplate at the top of any page.

Email it to pcrowley@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.

Electronic submissions are preferred, but you can also drop off an opinion piece at 54 Broadway, Saranac Lake, mail it to P.O. Box 318, Saranac Lake, NY 12983, or fax it to 518-891-2756.

Guidelines

We welcome letters to the editor of up to 500 words. A message in the general interest between 500 and 1,000 words may be considered as a Guest Commentary. Each submission must be factually accurate and contain the author’s first and last names, place of residence and contact information. Submissions may be edited for grammar, spelling, punctuation and accuracy. We generally limit each writer to one opinion piece per month. No consumer complaints, please.

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