Good question, but why is his letter a challenge? Publishing it would require more parenthetical background information than the sum of his letter. Apart from the Irish Americans concentrated in the Northeast, many Americans are unaware that life in Northern Ireland is still politically turbulent or that Sinn Fein is a political party closely linked to the Irish Republican Army, considered by many to be a terrorist organization.
Jones' letter would also have been expensive to verify under the requirements we impose. We don't publish letters we can't verify by telephone, and my boss wouldn't be amused at the telephone bill.
Letters to the editor are fundamental to the freedom of expression Americans value. They also make for fascinating reading by a wide audience. The Tribune's Public Forum, and others like it in newspapers everywhere, provides a way for people to participate directly in dialogues about the issues of the day that are essential for a healthy democracy.
Were it not for the surprises, quirks and challenges that letter writers often provide, the routines and rules by which we must operate would make the process little more than mechanical. Letters come to us by e-mail, fax and snail mail, and we welcome them all. We can't however, publish them all, and that's where the routines and rules become important.
About 90 percent of our letters come by e-mail. That's a convenience for us - sort of. Writers who type or write their letters by hand are more careful, and they require less editing than e-mails that are obviously whipped out in an emotional frenzy and sent without a second read.
Downloading the electronic mail is the day's first task. Letters that clearly exceed our 250-word limit are almost automatically discarded. If the opening sentence of a long letter indicates it may be worth editing for length, it goes in the "possibles" pile. The letters are then carefully read and the best ones marked for publication. Those chosen are checked to make sure the writer hasn't had a letter published within the past 30 days and are then verified by telephone. We discard letters that do not include telephone numbers and addresses. For the protection of both the newspaper and its readers, no letter is published without verification. They are then edited for clarity, spelling, grammar and pertinence. References to earlier letters or to news articles are parenthetically added when writers fail to make it clear exactly what they're referring to.
We also try to assure that letters are not part of orchestrated campaigns. We want original thinking in the Forum, not the thoughts and opinions of an individual or organization that provides boilerplate language to which people can simply add a signature.
Mailed and faxed letters go through the same process, but must first be typed. The letters then go to another editorial board member for a second edit and a headline and are sent to the talented folks who do our page layout. A page proof is then sent back to us for yet another edit. Then The Forum, a daily fixture in the Opinion section, is headed for the press and then on to our readers.
I would like to have published Mr. Jones' letter, and I wish his question about America's selective focus on terrorism would have been clear to our Forum readership. Thanks anyway, Brian. Next time I come to Belfast, let's get together for a Guinness or two. I'll buy.
