Disagreement must be civil

Less than six months ago we wrote an editorial in this space asking readers to play nice on our Opinion pages. We drew a line in the sand. We said back in March that we would not publish “letters and emails containing unsubstantiated allegations of theft, bribery, extramarital affairs and other legal and ethical wrongdoing.”

Now we think we should have painted this problem and our solution with a broader brush. Instead of inking a policy that applies this rule for a single election we would have served our community better by putting the policy in place permanently.

There are certainly legal issues to consider when publishing anything. And printing letters filled with allegations, half-truths and finger pointing is an efficient way to end up named in a libel lawsuit.

Then there’s the image problem these mean-spirited words create. Unfortunately, this is something we see nearly every election season, and we want no part in supporting or reflecting this version of bullying behavior.

If you’ve sent a letter to the editor that makes allegations of wrongdoing by one candidate or another, you won’t find them published here.

People are welcome to write letters of support for a candidate, write thank you notes to the community or comment on an issue without throwing mud at those with whom you may disagree.

Send letters to the editor that meet these guidelines to news@frontiersman.com, or mail them to Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, P.O. Box 873509, Wasilla, AK 99687.

And since we have no fact-checking or legal staff that can vet letters that skirt our rules, we must apply these rules with a firm and even hand. If your words aren’t constructive, rewrite your letter or Spectrum piece before sending it in.

If you have questions for the candidates, doubt their statements of accomplishments in office, etc., then go to one of several scheduled community forums and speak up. You may not use our paper and ink to cast aspersions on anyone.

We’re also pushing back on readers’ comments at frontiersman.com. We’ve heard it all from those who disagree — Nazi, ogre, socialist censors, etc. In some cases, we’ve responded by banning some of these name-callers from commenting on our website.

And we’ve taken similar steps on our Facebook page to make sure our standards for commenting are uniformly high and consistently applied.

This week’s Faith column by Rev. Howard Bess is in support of the civil rights of gay people. Know that if your online comment suggests gay people are less than human, akin to pedophiles, that gay marriage is the same as marrying your dog or any other line that dehumanizes or marginalize our gay sisters and brothers, school children and neighbors, we will strike your comment. Repeated and flagrant offenders will be banned from further comment.

We may disagree, but we must do so civilly.