Liberal in the Land of Conservative

Krebs column: Here are guidelines for letters
By Randy Krebs, Times Opinion editor

Published: August 26. 2007 12:30AM

Dueling letters

Close followers of these pages know that in recent weeks there's rarely a day that doesn't contain some reader submissions about 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann.

In fact, I've taken two calls requesting we drop "such garbage," as one elderly woman let me know. The problem is she wanted us to drop only the anti-Bachmann letters.

Obviously, that's not going to happen, but it does present a chance to repeat our basic philosophy. It goes something like this:

First, we print as many opinions as possible. Second, when we receive more opinions than resources allow us to print, we publish a representative sample. From a numbers perspective, that means an approximate ratio. From a content standpoint, that means giving priority to those letters that don't repeat previous letters.

Regarding the latest Bachmann brouhaha, so far we've been able to meet the first goal. I suspect we might shift to the second as we move into fall, when reader submissions tend to increase.