Frontiersman decision shows lack of integrity

To the editor,

Many years ago I taught a journalism class to my high school students in Texas. I taught about independence, about the journalist's duty to follow a story where the facts lead — not where the writer wants them to lead. I taught them about the necessity of maintaining a strong wall between the business side and the editorial side. I lectured long and hard about the need to resist intimidation. Those ideas seem so quaint now, after seeing your May 3 editorial, “Cartoonist’s departure will allow paper greater flexibility to provide local content.” In this editorial, you justified sacking an award-winning cartoonist because he upset some of your more vocal readers. You announced to the world that you will be intimidated. You announced to the world that if someone doesn’t like the news you report, all they have to do is threaten to quit you, and you’ll pull a story, or pull back on a story, no matter how legitimate, no matter how well-researched. Both Dan Grota and Chuck Legge will be missed. Even more so, what will be missed is the trust in the newspaper’s integrity.

David Cheezem

Palmer