Letters to the Editor

+ Herald-Tribune editor responds to column
Dear Editor:
This is in response to Rod Thomson’s March 31 column, ‘Needed: Barbarian with a pen’:

Your premise is that because my help wanted ad was lauded by a “far-left magazine” and journalists everywhere, this is proof of the bias you’ve long suspected in journalism. With more reporting, you might have learned that a number of websites posted the ad with praise, including The Blaze — Glenn Beck’s site. Among the hundreds of positive emails I received were from people who saw it there, and from non-journalists in professions I doubt you’d consider “far-left,” such as law enforcement officers and members of the armed forces.

You made another accusation with no supporting facts by claiming the Herald-Tribune chases big, ego-puffing projects at the expense of covering local issues. Coverage of Jackson Labs, Derrick Williams’ release and the county’s contract issue, just to name a few recent examples, demonstrates our commitment to covering the community. I’ll add that an education reporter and business reporter triggered two of the paper’s biggest projects thanks to their dogged coverage of local issues. Maybe you consider the mishandling of abusive teachers and widespread mortgage fraud examples of pointless, “gotcha journalism.” At the Herald-Tribune, we call that good journalism.

Finally, I find it odd that in a column about journalism ethics, you forgot that part of the job entails reaching out to the person you’re writing about. The ad included my email address and phone number, yet I never heard from you before you published. I would have gladly answered your questions.

There is one part of your column I enjoyed: Your plea to remember the type of reporter we hired when your readers see that person’s next “expose.” I think your readers will find it more informative than a column with no facts.

Kudos to you for printing this reply.
Matthew Doig
Investigations editor
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (but not speaking on behalf of the paper)

+ Private landlords not answer for poor
Dear Editor:
Individual landlords are great as long as they don’t wind up being the classic slumlords. We have always had too many of them. Poor, low income people need a good place to live, too.

Why is Medicaid such a bad thing to conservatives. Should these people just go ahead and die off so they leave the rest of us alone?
Blaine M. Pool
Sarasota

+ The Observer provides an ‘open door’ to the community
Dear Editor:
Just a little note to thank you for your wonderful publication that is now delivered to my home. I have been a resident here in Sarasota for 40 plus years, and always enjoyed reading The Observer. It is a fresh and informative publication that gives me an open door to our community, without all the political overburden.

Thank you so much. I look forward to receiving it.
W.A. Schuster
Sarasota