"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 29 August 2011

What's Not Right About It...Where's The Harm?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Newspaper Editorials":

Except that the name of the editor is usually just over there, right next to the editorial on the masthead, ask your buddy Ron at the Auroran.

Anonymous, indeed...

My friend  Ron Wallace puts his name on the column he writes in the space usually retained for editorial comment.

It is acknowledged newspapers usually publish the names of editors. They just don't  publish the name of the editor who wrote a particular editorial.  They do however stand behind  it.

Letters to the editor are not endorsed by any newspaper

Ron makes that clear on a regular basis.

I just thought of something else to mention in this space. When a resident speaks to his or her Councillor about a particular issue, the conversation is normally considered private. An e-mail
expressing a concern to a Councillor is also generally considered private.

People who  post comments to my blog anonymously have the right to express  the same opinion  to a councillor without being named in a public debate. Unless with agreement..

It's not written down anywhere.

It's just generally understood.

Like we understand our right to  secret ballot.

There are  many good reasons why a person would not choose to trumpet personal  opinions.There is nothing in the Charter of Rights that requires us to do so

That's why I think the opportunity to comment anonymously is a plus. It doesn't receive the same weight as with a name attached. In the minds of some it may not have any weight  at all. But it gives the person who writes it an opportunity to vent  that wasn't there before.

At this point in the evolution of the social media, who is to say that's wrong.




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