Looking Back

Last year at this time we anxiously unveiled our new Opinion pages. Looking back, particularly in light of last year’s political season, it’s clear to us that we should explain why we bother to publish opinion pages at all.

Do we try and influence public opinion? Yes. We research issues, interview newsmakers and say what we think. Our opinions are clearly labeled “Our View” and they run in the upper left hand column of the Opinion page.

Do we publish alternative points of view? Absolutely. The majority of space on our pages is used for public journalism - through letters to the editor, Your Turns or other interactive features. We also publish pro-con editorials and syndicated columnists to provide a wider slice of commentary.

Does every piece of commentary on the page carry the endorsement of the editorial board? No. It would be impossible for our diverse board always to agree with Cal Thomas and Molly Ivins. Or with both Dave Oliveria and Anne Windishar. Or Milt Priggee. In fact, the driving force behind these pages is our belief that we don’t all have to agree. That it is okay to agree to disagree. We believe the creative tension that exists between conflicting ideas is what democracy is all about.

Our goal is to provide a fast-paced, diverse array of commentary that inspires debate and creates a better understanding of important issues. A year ago we restructured the editorial board to include a more diverse group of writers and editors. We changed most of syndicated columnists to reflect a broader range of opinion.

And, we made reader participation a top priority. We have assigned two editors the task of helping readers get their views published in the paper.

Through the Your Turn columns, over 100 readers shared personal experiences that helped them form opinions on topics ranging from the DARE program to confronting abusive behavior. Readers authored stories for the Perspective page that varied from personal experiences with abortion, to getting involved in local government. Interactive Editors Rebecca Nappi and Doug Floyd have hosted town hall meetings, industry forums and attended dozens of community events.

The Roundtable page published well over 4,000 letters to the editor, as many as any paper in the country. Local artwork, some of it polished and some of it doodling, also appears regularly on the Roundtable page.

So, was it worth all the work? It depends on whom you ask. We have received high praise and vicious criticism from readers. Our most biting criticism came after we endorsed Tom Foley for re-election. Angry letter writers claimed we were out of touch with the mainstream although Foley only lost by two percent of the vote. We were accused of slanting the news throughout the paper on Foley’s behalf. Some people demanded an apology. Many called for an end to endorsements. Others cancelled their subscriptions.

We know our critics are suspicious. However, opinion writers are not in a position to manipulate news pages throughout the paper. Opinion writers are supposed to take sides in politics; news reporters are supposed to investigate all sides of a story. Both types of writers provoke protests, but their missions in fact are very different.

We demand no apologies from letter writers with whom we disagree, and we feel no need to apologize for our endorsements. And yes, we will continue to endorse candidates for office. We have no intention of withdrawing from the issues when the time comes for the public to make its decisions. To discontinue endorsements because of negative criticism would be giving in to fear and intimidation. We are not afraid to say what we believe.

Now we’re wondering: How do we maintain our strengths, and strengthen our weaknesses?

BAGPIPES: If you hold strong opinions about difficult public issues, Bagpipes wants - needs - your participation. Especially if you have a knack for forging creative solutions to stubborn problems.

Every Tuesday Bagpipes poses questions about two or three items in the news and asks for your feedback by phone or fax.

Every Thursday the same space is devoted to representative responses. Constructive ones get preferential treatment.

At the least Bagpipes will give all sides an airing. At its best, the feature will give promising initiatives a chance to vie for public support and, who knows, perhaps unlock a community dilemma.

The intent of Bagpipes is to provoke frank but constructive discussion of challenging issues and, when possible, to reveal promising approaches.

HOT BUTTONS: Doug Floyd will also be writing this new feature for the Roundtable page. In Hot Buttons, Doug will respond to letter writers who feel that we’ve fallen short of journalistic standards. He will research the complaint, talk to the editors, reporters or photographers involved in the news decision and explain the newspaper’s position. This marks a change in approach for us. We’ve kept our hands off the Roundtable page to maintain an open forum but the degree of anger expressed by some writers demands a response.

Read on for a review and explanation of the features you’ll find every week on the Opinion and Perspective pages.

Our View

On Wednesday morning at 11 a.m., the editorial board of The Spokesman-Review gathers in a conference room on the fourth floor. For the next couple of hours, board members take turns raising issues. The topics are then discussed, argued about.

Some of the topics die on the table. The board reaches consensus on others, either quickly or after much discussion. When opinion is sharply divided, pro-con pieces are written.

Out of the weekly meetings come many of the ideas for the editorials you read in the newspaper each day. A few members of the editorial board also meet each morning to review the previous day’s editorials and fine-tune the ideas for the next day’s.

Editorials speak for the newspaper and its editorial board. Our editorials are signed by the writer who wrote the opinion on the board’s behalf.

From Both Sides

It happens to everyone. You’re sitting at the kitchen table reading an editorial. Before you know it you’re shaking your head, muttering “no, no, no!” and looking frantically for the other side of the story.

You won’t always find it. Most editorials, because they are opinion, take one side and one side only. That often frustrates those who happen to be on the other side.

The pro-con feature of The Spokesman-Review’s editorial page remedies that. “From Both Sides” runs every Friday. For our writers, a spirited debate is great fun. Everywhere we go, from barbershops to the front steps of our churches, readers tell us they enjoy the chance to examine both sides of an issue. The contest helps us all make up our own minds - and that’s what opinion writing’s all about.

Priggee’s View

Milt Priggee. Readers either love his editorial cartoons, or hate them. But Priggee doesn’t mind, as long as his cartoons spark debate.

Editorial cartoons are drawn commentaries, biased exaggerations intended to stir dialogue. Priggee uses a mixture of irreverent wit and artistic talent to question our society’s values, assumptions, hypocrisies, virtues and vices.

Syndicated Columns

The Spokesman-Review subscribes to a large assortment of the nation’s finest opinion columnists. We strive to present viewpoints across the political spectrum on a broad range of subjects.

Here are some of our regularly featured columnists, their areas of interest and their political inclinations:

Molly Ivins - politics, liberal

Cal Thomas - social and political issues, religious conservative

Donna Britt - social issues, unpredictable

David Broder - politics, moderate

John Leo - political correctness, conservative

Ellen Goodman - social and political issues, liberal

Tony Snow - politics, conservative

Tom Teepen - politics, liberal.

Mona Charen - politics, conservative.

William Raspberry - social issues, moderate.

Art Caplan - medical ethicist.

Anthony Lewis - politics, liberal.

George Will - politics, conservative.

Interactive Features

Your turn The Your Turn column scheduled for the weekend had fallen through at the last minute. Interactive Editor Rebecca Nappi, after visiting a relative at a Spokane Valley nursing home, was hurrying out the door to return to the office and find a replacement Your Turn. A man in a wheelchair approached, and handed her a sheet of paper. The man’s name was Mackey Brown. He was 85 and had written an essay about life in the rest home. A perfect Your Turn.

No surprise, really, because the Your Turn columns, which run Wednesdays and Saturdays on the editorial page, have surfaced in many surprising ways. They are a column intended to give a voice to the men, women and young people in our community who don’t ordinarily find their voices in the newspaper.

The Your Turn columns recount the personal experiences that help someone form a strong opinion. For instance, one mother, whose bicycleriding daughter was hit by a car, is now adamantly for mandatory helmet laws. Our youngest writer was 12; our oldest, 90. We are always on the lookout for more Your Turns from young people, minority community members and North Idaho residents.

Nappi and Interactive Editor Doug Floyd provide as much writing and editing help as needed. Some essays require only a punctuation correction or two. For others, the interactive editor and writer fashion the essay together at the computer.

If you have a Your Turn column, or just the idea for one, send your suggestions to Floyd or Nappi at The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615. Or call Nappi at 459-5496 or Floyd at 459-5466.

Live outside Spokane? Try (800) 789-0029. Or fax your essay to (509) 459-5098.

Hot Potatoes

D.F. Oliveria’s favorite pastime is poking fun at people in the news and some that aren’t.

North Idahoans have read his Huckleberries column for the past decade, and since last May 31, his Hot Potatoes.

Hot Potatoes offers short, pointed views of the news that has North Idahoans buzzing - like bazillionaire J.R. Simplot snubbing the north in a meeting with legislators last week.

The feature replaces Doug Floyd’s Bagpipes under “Our View” on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The Hot

Seat Every Sunday we put local and national newsmakers on The Hot Seat for something they’ve done, or failed to do. As a result, The Hot Seat has made many friends and enemies over the past year. A caller once thanked The Hot Seat for saying what most people think but are afraid to say out loud. Other comments about this feature aren’t printable, even by Hot Seat standards. We take nominations for The Hot Seat from the public, our vast international Hot Seat staff and other newspeople. Call Scott Sines at 459-5405 with your nomination.

Golden Pen

Sometimes, a letter to the editor sings. The writer expresses an opinion clearly and succinctly, with grace and style. The letter lingers in the mind long after the newspaper has been read.

Other times a drawing or other piece of art evokes feelings that words can’t describe.

To honor excellent art and fine writing on our letters to the editor page, each week The Spokesman-Review editorial board nominates a contributor for the “Golden Pen” award. We republish the nominated piece every Monday. At the end of each month, we choose one nominee to receive a 10-karat gold Cross pen.

It doesn’t matter what opinion the artist or letter writer expresses. This is our way of saying thanks to those who enrich the public dialogue on our pages.

At the end of the year we host a reception for the monthly winners, in the Review Tower. See today’s Roundtable page for a picture and list of this year’s winners.

Bottom Lines

There’s not much point in crying at the week’s news, so you might as well laugh at it. Staff writer Jim Kershner produces this weekly collection of satirical one-liners about developments on the local, national and international scene. Just think of them as editorial cartoons without the cartoons. Look for Bottom Lines beneath the cartoon Gallery, every Monday.