Editors’ Panel: Lively, timely, and important

By Sharon Hazleton

Three community leaders who make important decisions about what is printed in several northwest Florida newspapers answered questions and shared their papers’ (and their own) views about the role of print media at a June 15 special DEC meeting.

Ron Kelley, Editor of the Defuniak Herald/Beach Breeze, along with Walton SUN/Destin LOG Publisher Rick Thomason, and Pat Rice, who is Director of Content for the Freedom Newspaper Corporation,  had a great deal to say about the roles they play.  Here is a sampling:

“ . . .the more you consolidate (news corporations) and create monopolies, the more you pasteurize and homogenize the news. . . .when an organization supplies content for more than 100 or so newspapers. . .the same viewpoint is espoused over and over. . .” -- Ron Kelley

“. . .the editorial slant of the Freedom Newspaper Corporation is ‘libertarian slant. . . .’not the Libertarian Party but the philosophy. . .individual rights, personal responsibility, community stewardship, and life-long learning.”  --  Pat Rice   

“. . .and example of an editorial decision based on the libertarian slant came up when beach restoration was such a hot issue.  I couldn’t decide how the ‘libertarian philosophy’ applied to beach restoration.  I called on someone from the Freedom corporation who came to South Walton and walked the beaches with me.  He said, ‘this is not an issue one can take an editorial position on; it’s an issue for the courts.’” – Rick Thomason  (the SUN and LOG are part of the Freedom Newspaper Corporation family)

The topic of letters to the editor created a great deal of discussion.  Should letters that seek to inflame violence or that mouth untruths be published? By publishing them, do newspapers help promote acts of violence?   Ron Kelley said, “Letters to the editor are almost sacred. . .my role is not to tell people what to think – just to protect their rights to say ‘offensive things’. . .  .That right is tested more when the letters are controversial – not the nice, flowery letters that don’t need ‘freedom of speech protection’. . . .”

Pat Rice, who developed the popular “Spout Off” for the Northwest Florida Daily News, sees local politicians paying attention to the popular issues appearing in “Spout Off” and perhaps modifying or changing certain policies that they may have ignored – except for the public comments in “Spout Off.”

The editors were not bashful in their appraisals of the Democratic Party in northwest Florida.  “Democrats have done a lousy job of organizing in northwest Florida – too much infighting has hampered their effectiveness,” said Pat Rice.   “But, Republicans don’t have all the answers either,” Ron Kelley opined.  “They governed the past six to eight years  with a Republican president, a Republican congress, a Florida Republican governor, and a Republican Florida legislature – and they were certainly not effective (paraphrasing his words).”

All three felt the lack of Democratic candidates at the local level was a negative to the political process.  “If you don’t field candidates . . .it’s hard to get point/counterpoint issues out.”  One editor commented that incumbents who don’t draw opponents sometimes incorrectly imagine they’re doing a good job – when, in truth, they may not be.

Ron Kelley had an answer to the lack of multi-party candidates: “I wish all county positions were non-partisan,” he said.

The panel was moderated by DEC Chair Jeremy Solomon, ably assisted by local Democrat Jackson Mumey.  At the outset of the meeting, Solomon said, “Our goal is to get to know each other and leave with more trust than we came with. . . .”  That seemed to happen according to many of the  40 plus local Democrats  who left the meeting determined to write more letters to the editor and perhaps with more knowledge about and respect for the people behind the scenes of our local newspapers.    Thank you, gentlemen!

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