I read with fascination the Aug. 27 Public Forum letter from Sheila Thompson about The Tribune’s editorial editor, George Pyle. When she said that Pyle called people who criticize the president “deplorable,” I thought that just didn’t sound like him nor the column I read on Aug. 19. So I went back and checked. Pyle was quoting someone else for that term “deplorable” and reporting that the Boston Globe was wanting to do an article about the attacks on the press.
Sorry, Ms. Thompson, but your inaccurate quoting of him shows the problem we are having all around.
Pyle went on to say, “The press is not biased against the president, but the press does have a problem with corruption and a cascade of lies that can hardly be kept up with.”
I have one question for you, Ms. Thompson: If this continual attack on the press causes one of them to get killed for trying to uncover the truth, or if this president succeeds in shutting down our free press so you can live in a country like Russia, would that be your preference?
When those crowds boo and say “lock them up” to those people in the press, they are risking those people’s lives, and that is never acceptable. I agree that some in the press have their issues and you have to do your homework, but by far I would choose some bad actors over living in a country with no free press. Would I choose some inaccurate reporting over the vast amounts of accurate reporting these people do to uncover the things that they do? Things that we would never know about if they weren’t doing their job? You bet.
I would suggest we all evaluate the amount of truly horrific things the press has uncovered and brought people to task versus the things that have been inaccurate and decide which we prefer. If you are wishing for a shutdown of the free press, under this president, you may get your wish.
Debbie Sanich, Draper