It’s editing, not censorship

We get calls and letters every day from angry, distressed or passionate citizens -- and some crackpots and weirdos and politicians -- fuming over this or that. That's just the nature of this business. Invariably, we suggest that they attempt to get their thoughts in order and write a letter to the editor.

The letters column is where citizens get a shot at a public podium, a daily, freewheeling marketplace of ideas. A vigorous dialectic is essential to a democracy. But we can't -- and won't -- publish every letter we receive. We don't have enough space. Also, letters can be dull, repetitive, insulting, libelous, repetitive, uncivil, obscene, repetitive, fuzzy, in a foreign language or just plain odd.

Sure enough, if we don't run a certain letter, the writer will accuse us of "censorship" and violating his freedom of speech.

Wrong. Only the government can "censor."

You're free to print up copies of your letter and pass them out on the street. You just can't use this privately owned newspaper to distribute your intellectual venom for you, particularly if it gets us in legal trouble. Newspapers don't censor. They edit.

--Burl Burlingame

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