To the Editor:
As I read your June 29 editorial rebuttal of Mayor Toomey's opinion piece in the previous day's issue, two thoughts crossed my mind. One it is to the paper's credit that an elected official's criticism of the paper's reporting was given space. Two I was disappointed to read that as editor you support your reporter "who uses critical thinking to sift through the mayor's agenda to find the truth, rather than regurgitating exactly what the mayor says." Further, the rebuttal states, "We understand our job and our time is best spent reporting the facts as we see them (italics added) and we will not back away from that."
The derisive term "MSM" aka Main Stream Media, came into being when opinion was co-mingled with factual reporting. In times past, opinion was clearly labeled as The Daily Republic still does on its editorial page. When I took a solitary semester of journalism in college, news consisted of What, Who, When, Where and Why. There was a presumption that readers could separate wheat from chaff when people were quoted. Mixing opinion with facts was unprofessional. I think it still is.
Alex Huff
Chamberlain
