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Saturday, May. 02, 2009

Tom Frazier: Not all editorials are locally written

Bet you think the Merced Sun-Star editorials are written by Sun-Star editors. It's a normal thought process.

But it's wrong.

Sometimes they are, but mostly they are opinions the Sun-Star editorial board shares with other McClatchy papers. Sometimes they rewrite the opinion a bit, other times not. It's obvious which came first.

There were 28 editorials between April 1 and April 27. Ten were originally printed in The Sacramento Bee; eight in The Fresno Bee; four in The Modesto Bee and six were penned by the Sun-Star editorial board.

They never credit the source because the opinion is shared by them and thus becomes theirs, too. Some may call it group-think.

So we learn what our editorial board thinks of state issues and national issues. Once in a while a local issue may surface.

There are daily e-mails from the other papers with links to their editorials, much like a menu -- an editorial du jour.

If we assume the editorial board really does meet and discuss each position -- or at least pop a few e-mails back and forth -- it's a good way to leverage the chain.

But I'm not buyin' it.

Mike Tharp, executive editor but not a member of the editorial board, claims the Sun-Star "holds the franchise on the local news that you, our audience, cannot get anywhere else."

Why should the editorials be any different?

Why not editorials about local issues -- most of the time? Need some ideas?

What's the editorial board view of the "battle of the airports" -- Merced Airport and Castle Airport? What should be the long-range plan? Why don't the city and the county have a joint goal?

What's the editorial board's view of the Wal-Mart distribution center? Or the various groups who are trying to block or delay it?

What should we be doing about the homeless situation in Merced?

How is the city doing controlling gangs? How about graffiti?

I'm sure readers could suggest many more items worthy of editorials -- if you ask.

I can hear the cries already from the back of the dog house: "Not enough time," "Too busy already," "We've always done it this way."

Quoting Tharp again, "No more. Now you, the audience, tell us what you want. We dance to your tune. We try to provide, as best we can given the financial shackles, what you say you want to read about in print and watch online."

I say it's time we have opinions written by Mercedians about Merced issues.

Most of the time.

Tom Frazier writes Sun Dog and can be reached at sundog@promessage.com

COMPARING EDITORIAL

STANDS ON STATE PROPOSITIONS

1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F

Sun-Star YES NO YES YES YES YES

Sacramento Bee YES NO YES YES YES YES

Modesto Bee YES NO YES YES YES YES

San Francisco Chronicle YES YES YES YES YES YES

Los Angeles Times YES NO YES YES YES YES

California Democratic Party N YES YES N N YES

California Republican Party NO NO NO NO NO NO

California Libertarian Party NO NO NO NO NO YES

League of Women Voters NO N NO NO NO N

California Chamber

of Commerce YES YES YES YES YES YES

California League of

Conservation Voters YES YES YES YES YES YES

Pacific Sun (Marin County) YES YES YES YES YES YES

Calitics NO NO NO NO NO NO

www.electionforum.org NO NO NO NO NO NO

N means neutral