A journalism prof of mine, way way back in Boys on the Bus days, said you should never write a letter to an editor. "You’re just playing into their hands."
As the news media struggles to come to grips with interwebs and googles ("And what are these lol cats we’ve been hearing about?"), I begin to suspect another good reason not to write to the newspaper people. You just don’t want to encourage them by making them feel relevant. That, I suspect, is why so many papers have online polls ("How do you like the weather we’ve been having lately?"). They crave proof that somebody is reading them.
Still, sometimes you can’t help yourself. You read something so patently unfair and biased that you just have to point it out to somebody. Even if it is the author of the piece. And let’s give Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writers Group credit where due: she posts her email address.
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