LETTERS: CITADEL OPINION DIDN'T BELONG ON THE FRONT PAGE

To the editor:

You did your readers a serious disservice with Tuesday's front-page item by Peggy Scott, "Graduate: Citadel, women don't mix."

This article appeared on the front page, above the fold, with a color photograph of a young local man in an imposing uniform, in the same issue in which the controversial crime bill pending before Congress, the capture of the notorious Carlos the Jackal, and the possible raising of interest rates by the Federal Reserve were all relegated to inside pages.

"News judgment" is one thing. But the personal opinion of one local private citizen on a matter of national significance involving constitutional issues, including the question of whether tax-supported gender discrimination is legal, is not news.

Anthony Charles Zoffuto, who recently graduated from The Citadel, is entitled to his opinion, puerile though his mode of expression may be: "We ate Faulkner for breakfast every morning and it had a very foul taste." The editors of the Southeast Missourian have a right to their opinions, as does Peggy Scott, whose byline appears on the article. But the proper place for opinions is on the editorial page, or in "Speak Out" or in the "Letters" column.

Like many Americans, I have an opinion on the Faulkner case. If the Southeast Missourian cares to interview me and put my opinion on the front page along with a photo, I suppose I would be flattered by the attention. But editorials, even when they are disguised -- poorly and thinly -- as news, belong on the editorial pages.

GORDON HEITZEBERG

Cape Girardeau