What is free press?

To The Eagle,

Shortly after Rick Nelson’s demise, a reader commented “what a relief that the new editor seems to have ended all that opinion letter drama.” Some letters must have struck a nerve among folks who considered it best to not think too deeply about too much or share those thoughts in print.

An in-house employee commented to me during the Nelson era that “our tracking indicates it’s the opinion page that has energized and increased readership” yet the Eagle’s new regime has eviscerated the vitality an opinion page widely known for its thought provoking local and interstate commentaries.

“Emphasis on local issues” aside, one posits the invisible hand of an insular local cabal, loathing ideological diversity and the horrors of progressive liberal commentaries, to be enjoying the cooperation of an editor predisposed to ‘keeping the peace’ by cultivating an opinion section free of any controvery.

The electorate has unleashed upon us the authoritarian monstrosity now scouring our nation. It’s the duty of a free press to provide a public forum to counterbalance its fascist propaganda. Restricting our liberty to publicly comment upon the shameful events occurring across this nation; ‘keeping our heads down’, will not provide safety from the monster.

During a different time fraught with similar peril, a small town editor of a different stripe, Benjamin Franklin of the Pennsylvania Gazette, admonished that "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety"

JB Bouchard,

Puget Island,