Opinion pages not for sale

The average person can’t spend thousands of dollars to hire an advertising or marketing firm to get their idea out to the public. If you object to a law, are concerned about a public safety issue, or just want to say thank you to the community for helping you, where do you go to get the word out?

Sure, social media means lots of us have platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to share our views with the world. These are theoretically global platforms but, in reality, your audience is usually pretty limited.

One time-tested way individuals have made their voices heard is by writing a letter to the editor of their local newspaper. The Opinion page is the one place in a newspaper where everyone can have a say. And since there is no expense to do this, it levels the playing field for our readers and provides a marketplace for the free exchange of ideas.

Unlike the Anchorage newspaper, our news staff usually writes editorials three times a week. This space is for our opinion on the issues of the day. We see value in writing editorials that challenge the status quo, cheer what’s best about the Mat-Su Valley, and inform readers about local issues.

The editorial and the editorial cartoon, which Chuck Legge of Sutton draws for us, are the primary items on these pages that come directly from the Frontiersman. Letters, Spectrums and other regular columnist contributions are generated by your friends and neighbors and published at no charge.

We are a local community newspaper. Our coverage area is only the Mat-Su Borough. Letters sent to us from folks in the Lower 48 are rarely printed. Letters from Alaskans who don’t live in the Valley are sometimes printed, if the topic is of local interest.

But we see a new — and disturbing — trend in how our Opinion pages have been used that we believe requires clarification of our existing policy on submissions. During the recent campaign season, we were sent several opinion pieces supporting a no vote on the highly controversial oil tax reform referendum that came from the same marketing firm that had a mega-dollar contract to promote a no vote.

While each submission was signed by an individual to give it the appearance of being like any other submission, the repeated rehashing of the same points by an organization paid to market and promote a singular point of view begins to look like a propaganda campaign designed to squeeze out contrary opinions. Although we will continue to accept and consider these submissions on a case-by-case, space-available basis, we do not think, in general, that this is an appropriate use of a community forum.

To that end, we’ve updated and clarified our letters policy to add language that explains in every issue of the Frontiersman how we decide what is printed here.

Tell us what you think. Send your letters to the editor at news@frontiersman.com; drop them off in person, or mail them to Editor, Frontiersman, 5751 E. Mayflower Court, Wasilla AK 99654.