Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Last Email Cpl. Clifford A. White Received From The Executive Edior @ The BFP

Cpl. White,
We’ve received your revised letter to the editor and have reviewed it. We still find one sentence that remains troublesome with respect to libel and that’s the section in which you say “…so they can stick a needle in their arm and fall into a coma in the woods behind my house…” We’d like to remove that particular remark so that the sentence would end with “…frightful vagabonds, skulking and begging for change.”
Making the aforementioned change would satisfy our concerns regarding the libel issue and bring the letter to the bare minimum level of civility, although in general it still remains unnecessarily hostile and, quite frankly, repugnant to us personally, as we imagine it will be to many of our readers. We will print it, however, since everyone, regardless of background or circumstances, is equal in the eyes of the editorial board of this newspaper, provided they maintain certain standards of respect toward their fellow human beings. This means that, to us, the people you call “bums” have the exact same rights as you do and are most definitely held in the same regard as taxpaying citizens. That, Cpl. White, is what journalism really is. Incidentally, it also happens to be the fundamental principle on which the country you say you love was founded.
We appreciate your efforts in revising the letter and, with the aforementioned change made, we plan to run it in our upcoming edition of June 17.
Thank you.
NAME REMOVED
GM, Southern Dutchess News/Beacon Free Press

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