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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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You're a good writer, KW, but newspapers have their own editorial conventions, space limitations, "balance" issues, legal fears, etc., and some low-level editors feel that the more they change in a submission, the better they're doing their job. You have an important and timely point to make, and if you'd like to get a former columnist's comments on your first draft, you're welcome to send to me.
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Thanks for the compliment and the offer. Why are you a former rather than current columnist? Retirement?
The letter I submitted referenced gun issues from a viewpoint opposed to the editorial stance of the newspaper. It was polite and within length constraints specified on the letters page. Their edit job introduced misspellings, poor grammar, incoherent and incomplete sentences and unfocused thoughts that were not present in the original letter. It was clear to me that their policy was to demean anyone who dared to disagree with the editors.
So now I don't bother, but do try to cost them subscribers whenever the opportunity arises.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
Ken was this a Knight Ridder paper?
I will not buy our local daily for such reasons.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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Ken was this a Knight Ridder paper?I will not buy our local daily for such reasons.
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It's not Knight Ridder and is privately owned IIRC. I have forgotten who owns it and it doesn't seem to be posted on their web site.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
I was wrong, the Oregonian is owned by Newhouse Newspapers and appears to be the only newspaper they own that is west of the Mississippi.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
I'm no longer many things I used to be. Really a teacher (now retired), I also did a weekly consumer-advice column, but after three years, the research time it took was more than my interest and the pay justified.
Sounds like you have a legitimate complaint against the paper. In Canada there's a national "Press Council" that hears such complaints and adjudicates them. Papers found at fault are obliged to print that fact. Hope you have something similar.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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Stimulus dollars here are being spent to repave roads that don't really need it. They could be adding lanes or paving over all the dirt roads in the county but that would make too much sense.
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Ken, we are seeing much the same thing up here, but it's for a sound reason, unfortunately.
The 'goobermint' announced the spending spree, errr, I mean 'stimulus package', with a rather stringent set of qualifications attached. Amongst the 'conditions' is a quiet killer, the project must be at the 'greenlight' stage to qualify for funding. In other words, it must be ready to commence "immediately". If it requires anything in the way of clearance, i.e. environmental study, engineering study, public approval, it doesn't qualify for funding.
On top of this there is a dollar amount cap for the entire scheme. When they have received & approved applications for a total amount equal to what they have committed to spend, the program is closed, period.
The end result is everybody is racing to get projects approved so they can secure 'their share' of the windfall before it's gone.
There's no yardstick by which anything is measured as to it's worth except $$$$, no having to justify anything.
Sad but true.
Best of luck.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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It was clear to me that their policy was to demean anyone who dared to disagree with the editors.So now I don't bother, but do try to cost them subscribers whenever the opportunity arises.
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Ken, based on experience, you would get much farther making a note of the major advertisers in that newspaper and writing to them briefly explaining the situation, and enclosing a copy of both your original letter, and the one they published.
Then go on to say that because of this intolerable situation you will no longer read that newspaper and that you wished to inform them that their advertising dollars spent on that newspaper were being wasted as far as your consumer spending was concerned. Be sure to CC the newspaper editor & publisher also with each letter.
I did this when a local up here did something similar to me over a controversial golf course being proposed.
Very shortly thereafter I had an apology from the newspaper, and my original, unedited letter published right next to it.
Best of luck.
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
Well Franky...er..."Pa", you're in luck--I DO have a gear tractor--a '91 Ford--so where do I sign?
We'll need to discuss a lttle thing called in-her-it-tence 
(he-he little does he know that it's a Ford garden tractor--an' don't mention it's belt driven TO the gears)
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Unintended consequences of the Stimulus package
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Ken, based on experience, you would get much farther making a note of the major advertisers in that newspaper and writing to them briefly explaining the situation, and enclosing a copy of both your original letter, and the one they published. Then go on to say that because of this intolerable situation you will no longer read that newspaper and that you wished to inform them that their advertising dollars spent on that newspaper were being wasted as far as your consumer spending was concerned. Be sure to CC the newspaper editor & publisher also with each letter.
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Murf, I'm sure you're right but this situation made me so mad I threw the newspaper on the burn pile. They are losing advertisers right and left and like a lot of other newspapers are in deep trouble. They just raised the per-copy price from 35 or 50 cents to a buck. Yep, that will help.
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Advertisers do carry at least more weight then a reader. As it is their dollars the papers depend on which depends on positive results.
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