Op-ed page is newspaper's soul

WorldWideWebb
Willis Webb, TPA president's column

Occasionally something said to us becomes words to live by. Generally, for a quote or phrase to stick with someone for a lifetime, it must be either pretty profound or something very rock solid upon which to build beliefs.

More than 40 years ago a wise old man, a school superintendent, said something in a public meeting, aimed not only to his whole audience but especially to the three newspapers represented at the gathering. How and why he said it made it even more profound to me and it is still as fresh and clear as if he’d said it last night.

The meeting was about a proposed and much-needed school bond issue in this school district. At the time there were three newspapers in the community. My newspaper, the newest of the three, was the only one to have endorsed the bond issue.

A questioner in the audience asked the superintendent, who was emceeing the forum, “What business does a newcomer have trying to tell us how to vote?”

The superintendent looked at the man, then at the editors of the other two papers (who were seated together) and said, “Sir, a newspaper without an editorial page is like a man without a soul,” then turned and smiled at me.

I thought it was one of the most profound things I’d ever heard. I still do. I’ve made sure to have an editorial/opinion/viewpoint page ever since.

Like most things, a newspaper is constantly evolving and re-inventing itself, but there are some very basic premises that will or should always be with us. Editorial writing, in my studied opinion, should always follow some principles perhaps present since the beginning of newspapers.

Each of us as editors and/or publishers should frequently question our editorial aims or goals.

First, do we develop an editorial stance based on individual issues or do we adopt a philosophy, political and/or socio-economic, and apply that philosophy to the development of the editorial stance on each issue?

After we decide how our stance is to be formulated, what else is there to consider?

Does each issue beg the question of what is the very best solution for the most people?

And, the one that may bother us most of all: If the solution that is best for the most people but is the most unpopular for the newspaper, do we still take the stance?

In those early years, how I learned to write and to arrive at the editorial’s conclusion helped me answer the first basic question on developing the editorial stance.

Erwin Canham was a longtime editor of the Christian Science Monitor in Boston. His editorials were given to me as reading assignments on a job that didn’t require me to write editorials. And, the reason ultimately became clear to this slow-learning young reporter-writer-editor.

Canham wrote editorials in a very logical order and manner. He presented both sides in an issue, carefully pointed out the good and the pitfalls, and then carried you to a very logical conclusion, one with which I could seldom find much argument.

He was a master at it and I can yet only hope someday to approach his command of molding opinion so logically.

Learning to write editorials in such a manner convinced me that an editorial is more believable if it is based on individual issues and that the paper’s position on that issue is clearly the best for the most people. Easy to say, hard to do, but true nonetheless.

As for political and/or socio-economic philosophy, it is difficult to keep such learned responses out of the development of opinion but Canham’s methods really work.

His method also helps me get around that business of unpopular for the newspaper but best for the most people. And, frankly, if you’re going to base an editorial stance on personal political beliefs, I think you will ultimately find most people will see it as political partisanship and it will affect your credibility.

Something that helps in arriving at those best-for-the-most conclusions is another old axiom on all things involving public money and/or governmental entities: Follow the money. That will always show you who’s going to benefit and why.

So, take that old superintendent’s advice and find your soul.