Names enhance the value of the opinion
Imagine, if you would, that you put your name on everything you did, every day. Imagine if your screaming child with the jelly on his shirt and the dirty feet was wearing a shirt that said, “child of (mother’s name here).”
Imagine if that fast-food hamburger you got at the drive through that had mustard instead of mayonnaise and only one pickle instead of two said, “made with care (or lack thereof) by Bob Smith.”
Imagine, if the clothing you wore, instead of saying, “inspected by No. 9,” said, “inspected by Mary Lou Jones” along with her address and telephone number.
There are positives and negatives to that possibility. If your work was wonderful, you would be very proud. If your work was haphazard or even negligent, you might be less inclined to claim it.
We, at The Enterprise, claim our work every day. Stories carry bylines clearly sharing which reporter did the work and wrote the story. They also carry what we call “taglines” that give the reporter’s e-mail address and telephone number. It’s part of transparency. Even pages carry the names of the copy editors who produced them. We claim our work, good or bad, right or wrong, and we put ourselves on the line to do it.
That said, we also consider anonymity another word for cowardice.
We don’t accept anonymous letters for our Opinions page because we think no opinion expressed without the courage of a name deserves acknowledgement.
Anonymous phone calls get similar consideration.
So, it’s important to make this clear to anyone with a concern or criticism of anything in Enterprise: We’re happy to hear you out and even publish your comments on our pages --- if you own them.
No gutless, name-calling cowards need bother to respond.
My name is Sheila Friedeck, I am the Reader Representative at The Enterprise, my phone number is 409-880-0748 and my e-mail address is readerrep@beaumontenterprise.com – and I believe in good journalism.
Imagine if that fast-food hamburger you got at the drive through that had mustard instead of mayonnaise and only one pickle instead of two said, “made with care (or lack thereof) by Bob Smith.”
Imagine, if the clothing you wore, instead of saying, “inspected by No. 9,” said, “inspected by Mary Lou Jones” along with her address and telephone number.
There are positives and negatives to that possibility. If your work was wonderful, you would be very proud. If your work was haphazard or even negligent, you might be less inclined to claim it.
We, at The Enterprise, claim our work every day. Stories carry bylines clearly sharing which reporter did the work and wrote the story. They also carry what we call “taglines” that give the reporter’s e-mail address and telephone number. It’s part of transparency. Even pages carry the names of the copy editors who produced them. We claim our work, good or bad, right or wrong, and we put ourselves on the line to do it.
That said, we also consider anonymity another word for cowardice.
We don’t accept anonymous letters for our Opinions page because we think no opinion expressed without the courage of a name deserves acknowledgement.
Anonymous phone calls get similar consideration.
So, it’s important to make this clear to anyone with a concern or criticism of anything in Enterprise: We’re happy to hear you out and even publish your comments on our pages --- if you own them.
No gutless, name-calling cowards need bother to respond.
My name is Sheila Friedeck, I am the Reader Representative at The Enterprise, my phone number is 409-880-0748 and my e-mail address is readerrep@beaumontenterprise.com – and I believe in good journalism.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 2:06 PM
1 Comments:
You want opinion, as long as you can identify the person who publishes that opinion. Glad you weren't around when they drafted the Bill of Rights.
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