Ben Franklin, “Father of Modern American News Coverage”

I titled my column in this week’s Chinook Observer “Rules and Ring-tones and Robots, Oh My!” which, I thought, reflected its benign and slightly humorous content. I submitted it, as usual, by email, along with a photograph of the quintessential telephone operator, Ernestine, as portrayed long ago by Lily Tomlin. Imagine my surprise when all or part of six paragraphs – 201 words by my count – were not included in its published form!

Let me interject right here that when a newspaper runs an opinion piece – a column, a letter to the editor, almost anything that appears with a byline – the understanding between author and publisher is that changes (including omissions or additions) will not be made. If, because of space limitations or some other contingency, adjustments to the work need to be made, protocol dictates that the author be informed of the problem and be given the opportunity to make necessary alterations him/herself.

William Randolph Hearst, “Father of Yellow Journalism”

In this case, it wasn’t so much that my words were important pearls of wisdom. 201 words out of 1,130 aren’t very many, after all. But eliminating them was enough to change the meaning and thrust of my article. In fact, the headline and next to last paragraph made no sense at all since the sentences within the column that referenced robo-calls and ringtones had completely disappeared.

Matt Winters, Editor/Publisher Chinook Observer

I paid a call on Editor Matt Winters the following day and asked, “Why?” His response was, as expected, “Space and time.” He said he needed to shorten the piece and he was up against a deadline. I pointed out that he could easily have made room by cutting out the picture; it wasn’t necessary to the sense of the column, but my words were. And I reminded him that I had turned in my copy 5 days prior to publication and 3 days prior to my deadline. When he fell back on past behavior and said he had never cut my words before, I conceded that he was correct. But I failed to see how that applied to the current situation and didn’t feel much better about it. Nor did I feel very assured when he said it wouldn’t happen again…

We went on to talk about far more significant subjects – like the current controversy raging between sides of the gun control issue. What is a newspaper’s responsibility, anyway? To reflect what the community thinks, even when misinformation is being published? Is there a responsibility toward truth and factual information? Or should a newspaper actually try to shape public opinion? And what about when you are the only show in town – no other viable local publication to present an opposing view?

Heady stuff. I was successfully diverted from my own rather petty complaint. Matt is good that way – it’s hard to stay mad at him. But I still have a little piece of righteous indignation about the liberties taken with my words. They expressed what I think. What came out in the paper should have had someone else’s byline… in my opinion.