To the Editor,
Re: Editorial cartoon, Feb. 11.
I am writing to you because I am particularly concerned with what I believe is your editorial policy. If you are a community newspaper, shouldn’t you try to make at least some effort to speak to the whole community?
You published a cartoon of Justin Trudeau (who appears as Alfred E. Newman) that is ignorant and offensive – not only to the Prime Minister but to most Canadians and most local residents (please reference the latest federal election results for substantiation of this point). I can only presume that it speaks to some kind of lowest common denominator in the conservative universe that you wish to reach.
Your letters to the editor section is frequently laughable – in a number of recent issues you published what appeared to be an ongoing ‘debate’ about climate change. However, the majority of the letters that you published reflected the point of view that climate change is a hoax, that global warming has not been caused by man and that the vast majority of climate change scientists don’t know what they are talking about. This should probably concern you.
I am requesting that you revisit your editorial policy and the contributors to your editorial page. I think that you should replace Tom Fletcher with a less biased, more open-minded columnist now that the Bulletin is our only local paper. I also suggest that you find cartoonists who are actually clever and funny – who challenge us to actually think. If you are truly a trusted community newspaper you should make some effort to gain trust, reflect our community and present more than one point of view on your editorial page.
I believe that because you state you are a community newspaper and since the paper is free and delivered to all households in our community you have a responsibility beyond that of the other newspapers to which we may choose to subscribe. In my view you are taking advantage of this fact to push an agenda that does not reflect the diverse nature our community.
Graham RamsayNanaimo
