Freedom of the press

For years I was employed by the state of Texas and because of that, was reluctant to write letters to the editors of newspapers. Even though much of the drivel they printed pissed me off, I didn't see anything to be gained by putting my own lame opinions out in public view where they might be read by people I worked with, including those who wrote my performance evaluations.

After I retired and stopped giving a shit about public opinion, I started sending in my reactions to stuff in the news that chapped my ass. At the time, our Texas governor was emerging on the national political scene and doing things that provoked my irate reaction. Every year, I'd fire off a couple of sarcastic letters to the local paper, and strangely enough, about three out of four made it onto the printed page. This was in the days before I had a computer, of course.

Sometimes another reader of the local paper would be so pissed off about what my letter said, he or she would pound out a screed in retaliation. Once, some people who agreed with me called me on the phone to thank me for my opinion. One of them tried to enroll me in the Libertarian Party, an offer I politely declined. Sometimes people would confuse me with my dad, who has the same name but radically different viewpoints, with hilarious misunderstandings resulting for my enjoyment and his displeasure. Good times were had by all.

One day, I was introduced to blogspot.com and became fascinated by the concept of a format in which only my opinions would be published, unless I agreed to allow dissenting comments. In September 2007, I established Hot Water Sandwich, although it had a different name originally. As time went on, I expanded my empire to its current boundaries. With each new blog, my urge to pontificate for newspaper readers diminished, and I stopped writing letters to the editor completely -- until last week.

Last week I came across a delusional LTTE epistle on the subject of voter fraud that I couldn't seem to ignore. In my email, I repeated some of the points I've written here: If voter fraud is as common as most conservatives believe, why isn't it being reported by the news media ? And if it's as rare as it seems to be (based on news reports), newspaper editorial boards have an opportunity, if not a duty, to set the record straight.

Several days passed. I forgot about it until this morning, when a significantly abridged version of my letter appeared -- sans my critique of the Texas news media. I realized that the paper retains the right to edit reader letters; in fact, several of mine had been slightly altered in the past. But in this case, I would've preferred the letter not be published at all rather than edited to the extent that its entire point was lost.

What ensued was a quick exchange of emails, in which the editor informed me that he saw "no reason" to include my final paragraph and I suggested that I saw no reason to continue my subscription. Actually, considering the content available online, I've been asking myself for months why I continue to dump 144 bucks a year for a paper version that I end up hauling to the recycle center, over half unread. In hard economic times, that's money that I can put to better use buying things that entertain me instead of pissing me off.