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Sep082007

Here’s What To Expect On Your Editorial Pages

Filed under Uncategorized by nick pappas at 1:49 pm

For those of you who may have missed the announcement in last Saturday's business section, I would like to take a moment to introduce myself to you as The Telegraph's new editorial page editor.

Or maybe I should say "reintroduce" myself.

After 18 years at the paper - the last two as editor in chief - I am moving over as part of a newsroom reorganization to replace Claudette Durocher, a 44-year veteran of this paper who officially retired from this position a week ago Friday.

As a result, I thought it would be appropriate to give you an idea of what you should expect on our opinion pages going forward, whether you visit these pages in print or online each day.

Check that: Let me tell you what you shouldn't expect.

  • Don't expect to agree with all of our editorials, most of which will focus on local, regional and state issues, though we will dive into the national and international arenas from time to time.

There will be times when you agree and times when you disagree - and that's as it should be. You also should expect to be challenged, annoyed, engaged, enraged, irritated and all the rest.

Contrary to public opinion, the goal of an effective editorial is not to tell you what to think, but to open your mind to a particular point of view. If you think we're all wet, you can write a letter to the editor or start a new thread in one of our forums.

The point is to engage you in a conversation about community issues.

  • Don't expect to always agree with our stable of nationally syndicated columnists - be they liberal, conservative or moderate.

The basic schedule I've inherited from Claudette is Susan Estrich on Mondays, Froma Harrop (who replaced the late liberal icon Molly Ivins) on Tuesdays, and conservative Cal Thomas on Wednesdays, though that isn't necessarily etched in stone, particularly if they are all writing on the same topic. (Hello, Larry Craig.)

After that, it could be anyone available to us through our various wire and syndicated services, depending on the topic. Among the columnists I've relied on when I used to fill in for Claudette during her many vacations - hey, what do you expect after being here 44 years? - were Bonnie Erbe, Reg Henry, Anne McFeatters, Derek Murdock, James Pinkerton, Martin Schram and Dan Thomasson, to name a few.

Have a particular syndicated columnist you would like us consider for these pages? Send me an e-mail and I'll look into it.

  • Don't expect to always agree with our Sunday local op-ed columnists - John Bachman, Joe Konopka, Paul Sylvain and reader advocate Gary Vincent. You're not supposed to. (Not to mention they would be extremely disappointed .)

The opinions expressed in those columns are entirely their own and don't necessarily represent those of the newspaper's editorial board. For the record, they don't necessarily represent mine, either.

  • Don't expect to always agree with the opinions expressed in our editorial cartoons. Sometimes they will stand alone on the page to make a single point. Other times they will be paired with either that day's editorial or the syndicated column below it.

And please don't try to surmise our - or my - political positions by the selection of cartoons that appear on these pages. Sometimes they are chosen because they are just downright funny regardless of whose ox is being gored. Historically, that tends to be the party in power.

One word of caution here: By definition, editorial cartoons are supposed to have a point of view, usually the stronger the better. That means there will be times when you will find them funny, sad, poignant, clever, thought-provoking, stupid, insulting and sometimes - and hopefully no more than on a rare occasion - offensive or in downright poor taste.

In closing, I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that the editorial and op-ed pages are unique in that they are the only pages in the paper that you aren't supposed to like every day. Given that they play to one's personal makeup - political, social, ethical, religious, etc. - any one item on the page is likely to elicit either joy or anger spread across thousands of people.

And that's as it should be.

These pages are also intended to be the closest to your pages in the entire paper. We want to engage you in a conversation for the good of the community. We want you to share your thoughts and opinions through letters to the editor in print and through our forums online. In short, we want you to feel that these pages are your pages, too.

If we can reach that kind of an understanding, then I think we will get along just fine.

Nick Pappas is editorial page editor at the Telegraph. He can be reached at 594-6505 or npappas@nashuatelegraph.com.

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