HOT PURSUIT
The subject line in an email I received last week: “Disappointing liberal content.”
It seems a reader took offense to Phillip Heim’s letter to the editor about mistrust, anger and resentment in next year’s presidential election. The reader called Heim “he’s nothing more than a hyper partisan with opinions far out of Owatonna norms.”
It’s no secret that Heim would be considered “far left” in his political views. However, it’s not our job to silence people from sharing their views, even if they go against what some consider being the majority views.
While I certainly would not go out on a limb and say I agree with all of Heim’s views, I applaud him for taking a stance and voicing his opinion. This is democracy in action. We need more people to speak up and not feel threatened to share their views.
The same reader also took exception to Tim Penny’s commentary promoting the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation of which he serves as president and CEO. “Tim Penny is writing ‘opinion’ pieces that are no more than promotion of his liberal non-profit organization,” the reader wrote.
“The Owatonna area is a conservative area and it would be nice to have a paper that acknowledges and caters to that audience,” the reader argued. While I agree we should cover such issues, I don’t feel we should ignore the rest.
I offer this analogy pertaining to news coverage: Does that mean because there are only a few minority populations living in the area, we shouldn’t report on issues involving minorities? I would hope most people would say no.
Most importantly, we are a community newspaper that shares news and information regarding all aspects of the community. At times we are faced with reporting on issues that we may not agree with or personally support. Sometimes it’s even unsettling for us to report on it. But that’s why we aim to provide fairness and balanced reporting in our coverage no matter what it is.
In addition, we have a special area of the newspaper devoted exclusively to “opinion exchange” where people can share differing views. I consider a section like this as a healthy part of any local newspaper. It’s important to understand that we represent the entire community, and not just one particular segment of it.
To suggest that we should publish only views of one political side is dangerous to our country’s democracy.
Ironically, on last week’s pages where Heim and Penny’s pieces were published, we also had two other columns from Sen. John Jasinski and Sen. Gene Dornink, who are both conservative in their views.
We also publish regular columns from Rep. John Petersburg, Rep. Patricia Mueller and Rep. Peggy Bennett, all of whom would be considered conservative.
The bottom line with our opinion pages is that we offer dialogue between people representing all sides. The pieces contained on those pages are exactly what the name of the page suggests—opinions. And I might add just because we publish those opinions doesn’t mean this newspaper agrees with the content. We are all entitled to our own opinions, and I feel it’s important to allow people to share what they believe. Just because our coverage area is predominantly republican doesn’t mean we should only run conservative pieces.
I always invite readers to go in hot pursuit of sending us letters to the editor or guest columns sharing their views on a particular subject. They promote a healthy exchange of views and make our communities stronger.