Herald’s bias is obvious on gay marriage
As a retired newspaper editor and former reporter for the erstwhile Chicago City News Bureau, I fully appreciate the demands on a managing editor to make timely and insightful decisions about what to print and what, in the long run, best enriches the community his or her newspaper serves. I think you’ll agree — as would your founder, H.C. Paddock — that when editorial bias goes beyond political preferences and shows a bias toward a moral stance held by perhaps half of America, that it becomes an unwarranted, almost reckless liberty.
Such bias has been shown in Herald over the last year or so with an editorial (or two?) and with your Jan. 19 front-page photo of a pastor discussing wedding plans with two gay men. Your center-of-page headline, “Married with the eyes of God” was the largest of its kind I’ve seen during my three decades of reading your newspaper.
Yes, I know the topic of gay marriage is news (though not very timely ). But don’t try to arrest our attention as if gay marriage is something all your readers should accept and value as a social norm.
By now I’m sure you have at least a couple of gays or lesbians on your staff. A lot of your unbiased readers, I believe, would like to hear the journalistic stance on same-sex marriage.
Robert R. Schwarz
Arlington Heights