Opinion and responsibility

OUR OPINION
Published: July 14, 2008

On Friday, this newspaper published a letter by A. Vic Poillucci which quoted Barack Obama. Unfortunately, Barack Obama did not say the words attributed to him. The quote came from an Internet
chain letter received by the letter writer.

We take responsibility for our part in allowing the quote to be published. We failed to catch the error. However, we would also like to implore our letter writers to take more care with their letters.

Before attributing facts or quotes to anybody, be sure that they are true. The Letters to the Editor section of the paper is here so that you may express your opinion, but you have as much responsibility
as our editorial writers and our columnists to ensure that your writing is accurate.

Too often, especially around elections, words, thoughts and accusations fly fast in the heat of political battle. Everybody want s his or her candidate to win, and it is easy to believe something negative
about the opponent, especially when one wants it to be true.

Some people carefully scrutinize the opponent, alert for any error of gaffe. This is an appropriate and fair form of political warfare.

Other people will take an opponent’s words or ideas and twist and spin them to fit preconceived notions or talking points. Here, the political game gets a little sketchier.

Then there are those who will take things they know to be false, package and then disseminate them in such a way as to convince others that they are true. The unwitting recipient of such information
then makes decisions and passes along the information without being aware that their thought process is based on a lie.

This is what happened in the case of the letter regarding Barack Obama last Friday.

People interested in politics cannot trust that the information they receive about political candidates is true, especially when that information comes second-hand or by e-mails from unestablished
sources.

We regret publishing Mr. Poillucci’s error in publishing the letter. We will do our part to make sure it does not happen again. We ask that you do your part as well.