I mean it. We need to hear from you when you think we've messed up. Newspapers are hard on people and institutions all the time. All the more reason to whack us if you disagree.

We knew the Bush endorsement would draw a strong negative reaction. Just how strong has been apparent in the Public Forum, as it should be. And I'm well aware it wasn't just the Bush endorsement that knocked over salt shakers and spilled coffee.

We did not keep a tally of the phone calls - there were dozens - but the letters on the presidential endorsement through Friday afternoon broke down this way: 7 in favor and 421 against.

There was deep internal division over the presidential endorsement, which had been under discussion by the editorial board for months. Pat Bagley's contrary cartoon next to the Bush endorsement, and editorial writer George Pyle's column arguing for Kerry, were indicative of this vigorous dissent. Publisher William Dean Singleton, also the newspaper's owner, believed strongly that, despite some grave missteps by the president (roundly criticized in numerous editorials), The Salt Lake Tribune should endorse Bush for a second term.

The endorsement, written by one of the board's editorial writers and edited by me, speaks - badly, many have said - for itself. Our readers, lots of them, have spoken for themselves; one letter came with a helpful graphic of an outsized and upraised middle finger.

So why endorse at all? Certainly, people don't like anyone telling them how to vote, especially in places like Utah where there is no recent tradition of political endorsements. Moreover, some media-savvy folks believe it is unhealthy to create the false perception that a newspaper's news coverage is colored by its editorial positions. The two departments - news and editorial - are strictly separate at The Tribune and at most newspapers.

Newspapers that endorse political candidates see themselves as performing a public service, offering readers the fruits of their research and interviews with the candidates with analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. I can't speak for other papers, but we here at The Tribune don't see ourselves ensconced on Mount Olympus telling people how to vote. Voters make up their own minds. Our goal is to inform and to stimulate thoughtful discussion, some of which plays out in this section.

Many readers quickly but wrongly concluded from The Tribune's endorsements of Republicans for most of the major offices that the newspaper had taken a sharp turn to the right. Some asserted that Dean Singleton has robbed them of "Utah's Independent Voice".

Here's the reality: Dean Singleton is both publisher and owner of this newspaper and, like publishers and owners all around the country, has the final say over what appears on the editorial page, should he choose to make the call. It is the same right enjoyed by all the previous owners and publishers of The Tribune.

I was appointed editorial and opinion editor by Dean Singleton 26 months ago and report directly to him. He has given me and the editorial board extraordinary autonomy - more than most publishers grant - to take reasoned and informed positions on the issues of the day, including the failed policies of the current administration. He rarely sees the newspaper's editorials before they are published and much more rarely exercises his right to override a majority of the board.

Readers can rest assured that The Salt Lake Tribune is not all of a sudden a Republican paper, or a Democratic paper, or a Mormon paper, or a Catholic paper. It remains fiercely independent of political party, religion and government, and not afraid to be criticized when that independence includes the unpredictable or the unexpected.

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Vern Anderson is The Tribune's editorial and opinion editor