A note from the opinion editors: how editorial board works

Last Thursday, the opinion staff ran an editorial titled “Benefits of US-Canadian oil pipeline.”  As an editorial board, we agreed the Keystone XL pipeline would benefit America’s economy, national security and pose little environmental risk.

After running this staff editorial, the opinion desk was confronted by several angry readers and an influx of critical emails.

As the opinion editors of the IDS, we welcome such criticism. However, we found it necessary to lay out some ground rules for those who might have problems with future opinion columns and editorials.

First, we would like to explain how we, as an editorial board, write our editorials. Every Friday afternoon, members of the opinion staff meet to discuss interesting stories in the news.

When we came across the pipeline story, we encouraged debate among the staff, like we would for any other issue. While the result was in favor of the pipeline, that doesn’t mean there were no dissenting arguments. What was published was the general consensus of those at the meeting.  

When told we should consider retracting the editorial, our response then and now is the
same: no. We will not censor the opinions of the staff, and we will not retract the editorial or offer any corrections. The facts included were properly cited and supported.

Please keep in mind we produce opinions, not articles. An opinion editorial is intentionally biased, and we will not apologize for that. More so, the opinions expressed are those of the opinion  staff, and not of other IDS reporters and editors.

Second, if you disagree with our opinion, please tell us in a polite way. Threats only weaken  your argument. When readers storm the IDS office emotionally charged, it’s difficult to achieve any productive results. If readers are passionate about a subject, we are more than happy to meet with them and publish letters to the editor, but we expect  criticism to extend beyond simple mockery.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge that while we do enjoy and encourage letters to the editor, we are constrained by the limited amount of space on the page.  We choose to publish letters, comments and guest columns on a case-by-case basis. Today’s guest column on the pipeline was published because it accurately represents many critics’ opinions.

A last thought: In the past few weeks, we have also received a good deal of criticism on our coverage of the Occupy Bloomington movement. We’ve been told our commentary is too “negative” and  “neutral,” at best. We’d like to tell readers we’re not here to produce “fluff” pieces. As opinion editors, we will not tell our staff what to write.

Often, we are confronted with stories we don’t necessarily agree with. However, we respect the views of our writers, and we will defend their right to be published.

That said, we are an open forum, and we respect the views and opinions of our readers just as much. We are simply asking to interact in a professional manner.

­— esalomon@indiana.edu and njacobs@indiana.edu