On his Facebook page, Kevin Richert responds with concern to the news from the Boise Weekly that Bill Cope's column has ended. It wasn't Cope's decision either. I didn't read Cope. Kevin didn't either. But Kevin has some thoughts on this development that I share:

"I've never met Bill Cope, and I can't honestly say I was a faithful reader of his column. But as you would expect, I am a big fan of newspapers (daily or weekly) that provide their opinion writers the space to take on the issues that matter, and the latitude to be provocative. I think it's an essential role of the newspaper — and strictly as a personal aside, it's a hell of a fun way to earn a paycheck. So it saddens and troubles me to see a newspaper say it has cut a columnist to save some money, to redirect resources, and to make space for "more and varied perspectives." I hope I'm wrong here. But too often that is code for publishing a spate of milquetoast (and unpaid) guest opinions. That's becoming too much the trend on opinion pages, to their ultimate peril."

Question: Are newspaper columnists and opinion writers important to you?