Some reader, every now and then, raises the question about newspaper columnists "passing judgment" on people in the news.

Monday, July 09, 2001

Some reader, every now and then, raises the question about newspaper columnists "passing judgment" on people in the news. Actually, I have never seen it raised as an honest inquiry but felt it hurled as a hostile attack: "How dare you!" or "Who are you to ?" I shall answer as if it were a question: The job description of one who comments on the news is to express individual opinion on the significance, value and rightness of what is in the news.

A news reporter is one job, and an editorialist or commentator is distinctly another. A reporter simply reports the facts of news events. At least, that is the theory. A sad and dangerous trend within recent journalism is that reporters are increasingly commenting on what they report. They are mixing personal opinion with objective facts. I can, and indeed do, denigrate reporters who suffer such a lack of professionalism.

On the other hand, no one can logically or fairly object to a commentator or columnist for writing his or her opinion. That’s what it’s all about, folks. That is precisely what commentary is – comment, opinion.

Moreover, the opinions columnists write are personal or individual. (My radio commentaries, "My Thought," have typically ended: "I am Wallace Alcorn, and this is my thought.") Columns contributed to periodicals do not represent the opinion of the newspaper or magazine that publishes them. Publishers and editors do not intend them so to be received nor do the writers. In point of fact, a periodical edited in a fully professional manner uses opinion by outside writers specifically for the purpose of presenting opinions that do not agree or might differ from its own. This balances the perspective. Editorials represent the paper as institutional opinion, but also opinion none the less.

If you disagree with the opinion of a commentator, thank the editor for giving you something that makes you think and then, if you will, go after the commentator. Don’t blame the editor, but hold the commentator’s feet to the fire until he or she supports the opinion with reason. The most appropriate and effective way to "go after" the writer is a letter to the editor.

Opinions published are more specifically individual than personal. That is to say, they are not unexpressed private, intimate thoughts but the organized thinking of one individual for which that individual accepts responsibility and then exposes them to public criticism.

A serious mistake for readers is to expect to read opinion pieces with which they usually agree. That has its value, but it is limited. If you find yourself always agreeing with a certain columnist, one of you isn’t necessary. It is the one with whom you most frequently disagree whom you should read most carefully.

To demand any columnist be dropped largely on the basis of ones disagreement is a confession of personal insecurity. To cancel your subscription to the paper is self-defeating.

Of course, to merit your attention and gain your respect, the opinion must be based on reasonable knowledge of the subject and written with sound reasoning. Such is the writer’s burden. One of the most encouraging responses I receive is, "You always give us something to think about." These readers get it.

On the other hand, it takes a degree of nerve to offer one’s individual opinion to the public. As David Brinkley put it as the title of his collection of commentaries upon his 1996 retirement, "Everyone Is Entitled to My Opinion."

Wallace Alcorn’s column appears Mondays.