John Hughes wrote a letter to readers that was published in the March 15 paper. I like the tone and general feeling of the piece. I like Mr. Hughes' desire to be open as exhibited by his signed articles.
Also, by putting names of those in charge under the editorial column every day, I like his stated desire to be responsible and ethical. I like Deseret News' willingness to publish critical letters.I think it is true that there are many fine journalists who write very useful articles every day. They should be commended and complimented for their work, particularly for informational articles on myriad subjects. They are tremendously helpful to us.
As Mr. Hughes says, "The decision to publish or not to publish should be case-by-case." He was talking about high-profile scandal news, but I believe it applies to everything the paper chooses to publish or not to publish. He might agree with me on this but would perhaps be unhappy should I choose to call his decisions "censorship" rather than "responsible editorship." Or "biased selection" rather than "balanced journalism."
I like many of Deseret News' editorial pages and columns. Many I dislike. On balance, the editors exhibit more leftist or "liberal" opinions than I am comfortable with. But I am thankful you are more conservative than the Tribune.
What I would like to see you improve upon is the selection of news articles from AP, Scripps Howard and other outside sources. Many of these are biased toward the left. At least you should publish the name of the writer of every article. (You've been doing more of this lately. Thank you.)
I suppose you are prohibited from editing these articles except for cropping, but the most blatant ones could be completely censored out. Could you have someone on staff add a more balanced paragraph or two at the end of these articles? And the headlines for the articles could be improved. Because Deseret News composes the headlines, you could make sure they are more objective, or neutral, rather than supporting the bias of the article.
Thanks, Mr. Hughes, for your forthright letter. I look forward to more of them. Your presence at the Deseret News is being felt for good. Just be even more conservative, and you will please this reader.
Amos L. Wright
Provo