Editor's Chair

Local news and local opinions

Justin Johnson | Apr 18, 20240

Since the first edition of the Shelton-Mason County Journal rolled off the press in 1886, three years before the state of Washington joined the union, the Journal has been dedicated to covering the news and events that affect the City of Shelton and Mason County at large.

From cover to cover, the newspaper our readers pick up is written by people who live in the area about things that happen here.

Whether it's the Shelton City Council, the Board of Mason County Commissioners, one of our numerous fire, school or port districts, or high school sports, our mission now - just as it was in 1886 - is to inform people about what happens here. News and information that you can't get anywhere else. And for that, our readers have shown the Journal an immense amount of loyalty - some of our subscribers have done so for decades. In a time when newspapers across the state and nation are closing, leaving news deserts thirsty for information, our readers have stayed with us.

What you won't find in the Journal's pages, however, is national and international news. As a weekly newspaper printed each Wednesday afternoon that hits the newsstand and mail every Thursday morning, it doesn't make any sense for us to do so.

The international and national news cycle is 24/7, and most things would be stale and out of date before the pages started coming off the press. Instead, we stick to what we do best - telling the story of Mason County.

Prior to last year, the one exception to that policy had been our Letters to the Editor section, where readers frequently took turns – and shots – at national politics and politicians.

As American society has become increasingly polarized, unfortunately our letters section went with it and the letters started to resemble snide, social-media-style attacks where writers would attack other writers instead of debating issues.

That's when I, as the Journal's editor, decided to pull back on letters about national topics and reframe the page to discuss local matters. And guess what, it worked. Our pages calmed down. The name-calling and personal attacks, for the most part, dried up.

Earlier this year, with the March 12 presidential primary coming up, I decided to back off that decision and let those discussions begin anew. Unfortunately, in no time at all, it descended right back to personal attacks and lies.

One writer wrote that while the bodies of U.S. servicemembers killed in Afghanistan were returning to the United States, President Joe Biden spent the time looking at his watch. Biden was holding a rosary belonging to his deceased son, Beau, and spoke a prayer as each body passed.

Why did the letter writer write this? Was the person intentionally lying and attempting to deceive our readers with something they knew would be inflammatory? Or was it a matter of simply not caring whether what was written was true? There's no excuse for either reason.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike President Biden without making up lies.

Another writer claimed former President Donald Trump was a frequent visitor of the private island of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced former financier who was convicted of sexually trafficking and sexually assaulting children. This is also untrue. There are no records of Trump ever visiting the island.

Why did the letter writer write this? Was the person lying and hoping to deceive our readers with something they knew would be inflammatory?

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Trump without making up lies.

These are but two examples from this year of what our letters section started to become again.

It was enough.

After the primary was over, I put our previous policy back into place and the Journal again stopped printing letters about national politics and news.

What we do welcome is letters about local issues and local politics by people who live in the area. Those will be given top placing and priority. With most of the state's key offices, including the governor, up for grabs, we'll also strongly consider letters about those races because Olympia and the Capitol are just 30 minutes away, and those issues and races have a much more direct effect on all of us.

■ Justin Johnson has been the editor of the Shelton-Mason County Journal since September 2020. He can be reached by email at [email protected]