I wonder if I am the only person who gets a bit annoyed when our local newspaper, The Greenock Telegraph, publishes readers' letters without the address of the correspondent or checking the factual accuracy of the content?
Today's letter from "Kenneth Shepherd, Band parent" is a case in point.
Mr Shepherd's letter is critical of the Council for allegedly not financing the schools' concert band's trip to the national concert band festival in Birmingham. He urges parents to protest to their Councillors about this.
The Telegraph might feel that there is good reason not to publish Mr Shepherd's address. Personally I can't think of one. I do know however that there is a well known political activist with the same name as Mr Shepherd, so some people might be suspicious that in fact it is the same person or a relative of that person with a political agenda. Publishing the writer's address may have clarified if this is indeed the case.
As for urging parents to protest to Councillors, I have received an assurance from the Council's Acting Director of Education, Albert Henderson, that the Council will be funding the trip to Birmingham from a fund that my Administration established to support local talented young people.
I am struggling to understand why Mr Shepherd did not contact one of the Councillors to check this out before he wrote to The Greenock Telegraph.
I am also left wondering why The Greenock Telegraph did not check with the Council that what Mr Shepherd had written was correct before publishing his letter.
In these days of email communication, responses could have been provided within a matter of hours, if not minutes.
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I disagreed with what this Mr Shepherd had to say ,but if a name is supplied there is no need to publish an address as long as the writer is identified as being genuine. In a town like Greenock it isnt always wise to publish your address for the fear of reprisals, not all the issues raised in the telegraph are so petty.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there may be circumstances when it is legitimate not to publish a writer's address but not in this case.
ReplyDeleteI have it from a very reliable source that Mr Shepherd's letter was based on a conversation that he had with a Lib Dem Councillor, which adds to the suspicion that his letter was politcally motivated.
Fair point
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