Practice what you preach

On May 24, you published an editorial that discussed the efforts of the Daily Herald staff to weed out letters to the editor “containing patently ridiculous claims or highly questionable statements that are difficult to verify.” Then, you print a letter to the editor titled “Obama a no-show on 4th? Must be un-American.”

The letter writer states, “The press said he was at home celebrating with his family. Yeah, right. How many of you reading this would not have taken your family out on a beautiful night to see the crowds, bands and fireworks?”

This was not a difficult statement for your staff to verify. All you had to do was read what you published in your own paper. On July 5, you printed an AP article titled: “Obama salutes new service-member American citizens.” The article talked about how, on July 4, the president welcomed a number of U.S. service members who had just been sworn in as citizens.

The article concluded with his evening plans: “Later Wednesday, July 4, Obama was to host military families at the White House for a barbecue and fireworks viewing.”

It would have also been very easy for you to review the images of the Fourth, which were published on the Daily Herald website, including the photos of President Obama at Independence Day celebrations and speaking to a crowd from the White House balcony.

Is this really your best effort to “take the electronic scissors to words, phrases or whole paragraphs built on wild, often even acknowledged, rumors?”

John Ritchie

Geneva