After longtime Leader staffer Steve Taylor’s retirement last month, I inherited the important task of handling the many letters to the editor our wonderful readers send us. The task might sound easy, but it takes some time to keep track of the letters, reach out to the writers if I have questions and then edit them, which sometimes requires a lot of fact-checking. Along with the proliferation of social media, blogs and less-than-reliable websites came the proliferation of “alternative facts,” and we at the Leader want to do our best not to pass on that misinformation.
Fortunately, most of the letters we receive are filled with interesting and well-stated ideas and viewpoints, and it’s a pleasure reading them and talking to the writers if needed.
We appreciate all the letters our readers send us and wish we could run them all. However, we have a limited amount of space in our papers each week, so decisions have to be made.
That’s another hard part of the task, deciding which letters run and in which papers. For every letter that gets in the paper, another one is left out. I know readers must get frustrated when they take the time to write a letter and send it to the Leader, never to see it published.
So, I thought I’d offer a few tips to help you get your letter to the top of the pile.
First and foremost, I look for letters that focus on local topics, the kinds of issues the Leader reports in its four newspapers and website each week.
The Leader recently ran a story about plans for a Dirt Cheap store to open in the space that used to house a Hardee’s restaurant in Hillsboro, and we received a couple of letters about that. Both of them ran right away.
The Jefferson County Council recently voted against adopting term limits, and after the Leader wrote a story about that, several readers sent in letters to share their views about that decision. Those letters went straight to the top of the heap, too.
The Leader also recently got a couple of letters from women who were at the Jefferson County Library’s Arnold branch collecting signatures for a petition asking for a vote to amend the Missouri Constitution, and Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman showed up to try to convince people not to sign it. Since Coleman is a local politician and the event happened in Arnold, those letters ran right away.
Letters that languish at the bottom of the pile, on the other hand, often focus on national topics, like the upcoming presidential election, or international topics, like the conflict in the Middle East. That’s not to say those topics aren’t important and that none of those letters will run, but the Leader prides itself on being a “community paper.” We not only work here, but also most of us live here with our families and friends, and we want to make sure we share the news, as well as letters to the editor, that have the most meaning for our readers, neighbors and loved ones.
Another letter the Leader recently received came from Mike Zavorka of Hillsboro, who also wants to see the Leader focused on local issues.
“In the May 16 (Leader), you gave a column and a half to letters to the editor (about Ukraine),” he said. “We rely on you for local news. We get all other kinds of news from TV. With losing our Jefferson County radio stations, we have no other source (for local news).”
We agree with Mr. Zavorka and want to keep our focus on local people, places, events and issues. So, please, dear readers, send us more letters about what’s happening here in Jefferson County, Eureka and Wildwood and fewer about President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard people complain that they hate reading letters about partisan politics.
My second tip for letter writers is to avoid calling people or groups of people names. It’s one thing to disagree with a vote or decision an elected official or school administrator has made or to disagree with a certain group’s stance on an issue, but saying those people are stupid or lazy or evil isn’t acceptable, and those letters won’t make the cut.
It also helps to stick to one topic when writing a letter to the editor. Letters filled with ramblings about all the things wrong in the world don’t stand a good chance of making it into print.
It’s also important when writing a letter to avoid presenting information as if it’s fact when instead it’s just opinion. If a letter includes statistics or claims that aren’t backed up by reputable sources, it will require some serious editing or it won’t run at all.
I hope our readers find these tips useful, and I hope you keep sending letters each week sharing your valuable insights and opinions with your neighbors. That helps contribute to the great community we have here.