And another one bites the dust

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?