Letters to the Erie Times-News editor: A more realistic interpretation

In recent months the Erie Times News has published in its Letters to the Editor columns two letters from out-of-towners praising the newspaper. For example, here's one of them published today, with the editor's self-adulatory headline:

Letters to the editor:

Morning starts right with newspaper

My family and I were recently in North East for a visit with family and friends. Every morning, without fail, the morning paper from the Erie Times-News was at the door, and all of the adults sat down to read it from cover to cover with much anticipation. What a great newspaper. Thank you for doing such a good job. The paper made our vacation all the more enjoyable. Keep up the good work.

Sue Dawson Ostrom|West Bend, Wis.

This letter is similar to one published a couple months ago from a Connecticut woman visiting Erie.

Obviously, the Times-News considers these letters to be positive statements enhancing its image.

But there's another implication which projects a contradictory image. One never sees letters from local readers complimenting the newspaper unless it's to comment on the writer's self-interest, such as thanking the newspaper for an article or photo that flatters the letter writer, whether a person or an institution.

That's because local readers are highly aware of and sensitive to the local newspaper's generally inferior and self-serving editorial and journalistic practices which are contrary to the norms and high standards newspapers should espouse. Out-of-town readers, of course, see only a narrow snapshot of the Times-News' news and editorial output which is wildly out of context with the broad reality of its infectiously corrupt and anti-journalistic practices.