| Response to the Letter to the Editor |
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| Written by N.N. | ||||
| Wednesday, 25 April 2007 | ||||
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This article concerns a letter delivered to the Compass office over the last week, arriving on top of a pile of the inserts that were delivered within the pages of the Compass in our April 6th edition. These inserts had been neatly removed from the newspapers distributed around campus and stacked outside of our office door. Upon hearing of the receipt of the letter and reading its contents I requested the privilege of making a reply partially because of my interest in the subject matter, and also because I have no need to hide behind the cloak of anonymity. While the topics discussed in the said insert are of national significance in terms of their decision, opinion, and effect on each one of us as Americans, I feel that this is neither the time nor the place to address them. Furthermore given the fact that there exist an innumerable quantity of opinions on the subject of parenting and childhood in general, and abortion in particular, I would not be able to be held accountable for any other opinion then my own, and thus will proceed no further in that vein of refutation for the present. Instead I will move to addressing the several attacks made in the letter that specifically target the Compass newspaper as a “non-independent and biased” form of media, which deprives the ‘marketplace of ideas’ of ‘equal opportunity’. The aforementioned pamphlet, which was inserted into the fold of the Compass newspaper, is an advertising supplement provided and paid for entirely by an organization known as the “Human Life Alliance” and yes they are on a definite “side” of the abortion issue. However the Compass newspaper received the request to place the advertising in the paper, received the dues for the advertisements, and distributed the newspapers with the flyers intact in the same manner we have done with every other issue to date. You will notice that in the very same issue of the Compass newspaper there are advertisements for not only “Human Life Alliance”, but also “Up North Books”, “Dondee Lanes”, “Barish’s”, “National City”, “United Way”, ”Pak N’ Ship Xpress”, and “Hartwood’s Apartments”. Nearly every one of these other businesses offer services comparable to other establishments in the Sault Ste Marie area, does this mean that the Compass is unjustly biased towards them? Not in the least! Simply put these are the businesses that requested and paid for advertising in the Compass newspaper. As well should the authors of this anonymous letter question the integrity of “The New York Times” or “Washington Post” for posting advertisements for “Continental Airlines” or “Fidelity Investments”. These companies approach the news media with the intent of receiving results and pay handsomely for it. Does it not follow the reason and logic of all sane and coherent people that their advertisements are biased towards their own points of view? Should not these authors of the spread of biased information be persecuted to the fullest extent of human imagination for publishing such advertisements? Especially as both of the aforementioned publications are nationally and even internationally regarded as the best in the news industry, thus by the logic of the letter, they are culpable of far graver conspiracies then the Compass. These papers even produce whole columns devoted solely to opinions which loudly declare their authors beliefs to the reader and proclaim them to be right! Is this not the most sacrilegious of crimes to be committed on the alter Journalism that such a radical thing as opinions should be expressed? The opinions of the disgruntled few, offended by such a ‘radical’ pamphlet and skulking behind their secrecy, have acted not to rebut or refute the opinions expressed in the pamphlet, but rather to stop the opinions from being read. These actions hardly demonstrate respect for discussion, maturity and integrity on their part! The Compass would like to extend to them an invitation to submit an alternative to the HLA publication for distribution to our paper. We agree full heartedly that the Compass is to aid in the open and free discussion of ideas but we are only as good in expressing them as the abilities of our contributors. If no opposing opinions are submitted, we cannot publish them no matter how logical and reasonable they are. We look forward to hearing from you in the future and abide in the hope that you will answer to continue this discussion.  Add as favourites (0)
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