To the Editor:
I would like to take this opportunity to respond to a writer who wrote in taking issue with my last submission, in which I shared the environmental musings of the late comedian George Carlin.
If the author would be so inclined as to provide the name and contact information of the person or persons whom forced her under duress to read my last piece, then I would be more than content to give them a stern talking to on her behalf.
I would also encourage the author to look up the actual meaning of the word “Satire”.
Heaven Forbid that myself, the NCTW editorial staff, or anyone else should be so inclined to endeavor to furnish some levity. The author not accepting it for what it actually was does not translate to everyone else reading the same piece being incapable of doing so.
As previously mentioned, we do not have any right in this country to not be offended by someone else. But since the piece in question was taken from and duly accredited to the source material, I would suggest that the author take her grievance up with the George Carlin Estate in this case.
It makes we wonder though if I had instead chosen to share his bit on “religion”, if the author would have been anywhere near so eager as to raise objections.
The author noted, “Constructive journalism would be letters-to-the-editor based on one’s personal knowledge, research and creative contemplation”.
Has the author been reading the same opinion letters published by NCTW that I have?
Including her own?
One does not even need to read any further than the author’s name in order to ascertain what the piece is going to be about. Finding one hundred different ways to state the same exact thing over and over, is still stating the same exact thing, over and over.
I appreciate her thoughts on what journalism should be.
As well as her stated teaching credentials.
And while I cannot speak for the editorial staff of NCTW, as someone who worked very hard to earn a Masters in Media Management, and subsequently spent 30+ years working in and studying the field, I think that I feel rather comfortable in defending my own Bona Fides…at least in this particular arena.
Ask me to fix a car though and you're going to end up walking.
Leland Farnsworth
Massena
