One of the functions of most editorial page editors, in addition to writing editorials and editing op-ed pieces, is handling letters to the editor from the public. Most editorial page editors understand that letters to the editor are an important bridge from readers to the newspaper. They connect what newspapers report to those most affected by decisions of government, the courts, corporations, nonprofits or individuals.
With the decline in the number of newspaper subscribers over the decades, however, there are fewer letters in print. Still, some robust online news sites, such as those of The New York Times and Washington Post, can display hundreds or even thousands of comments from readers. But the sad reality is that thoughtful letters to newspapers used to play a more important role in society.
Opinion editors and their newspapers have varied approaches to addressing letters from readers. Some newspapers barely touch letters, if at all. That was especially true in past centuries, when much longer letters ran and with little indication that they were edited.
At the places I worked, we would edit letters for length and clean up typos. We also wouldn’t print “offensive” letters, such as those that were blatantly racist or promoted violence. (If such a letter managed to slip through, it was a given that the editor or publisher would hear about it from the public. And then the editorial page editor would hear about it.)
And, perhaps most crucially, we wouldn’t run letters that we knew to be blatantly inaccurate. Our loyalty was to facts in pursuit of truth. The facts were the foundation of a democratic society.
The traditional role of newspaper letters brings us to today’s social media sites and their impact on the country. No one would debate that America today is deeply divided. The situation has been largely created or exacerbated by social media, especially when no one is monitoring the sites for misinformation and disinformation.
That’s why it seemed instructive to see how controversial issues — and there were plenty of them — were debated in the 19th and early 20th centuries and what readers had to say regarding them. In some cases, the rhetoric was even stronger than today, but not generally.
What was particularly interesting was that many of the issues were the same as those roiling contemporary society: vaccines, abortion and birth control, race relations, immigration, etc.
The competing beliefs might be more entrenched today than at any time since the Civil War, but if there’s a lesson to be learned, as suggested in my book “Still Trending: A Divided America from Newspaper to Newsfeed,” it’s that open debate bolsters democracy and that a society committed to it can continue to survive and grow.
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