LETTERS: MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS

To the editor:

I am writing to support the comments of Emily McIntosh. I believe that as this area continues to grow and people continue to move here from other areas, the Southeast Missourian's editors will get more and more letters like McIntosh's. Newspaper readers from elsewhere are simply unaccustomed to the limited, narrow band of political and social commentary you provide. Cape Girardeau is growing, and your newspaper needs to begin to grow with it by providing the broad range of opinions other responsible newspapers provide.

I was taught that a newspaper should serve the community as a marketplace of ideas in which ideas across a broad political spectrum are presented to engage the public in an informed debate of the issues. Although McIntosh's contention that the Southeast Missourians news judgment is slanted by a conservative bias would be tough to prove, certainly such bias is evident on your editorial pages.

I join McIntosh in urging the editors of the Southeast Missourian to balance the spectrum of opinion provided on the editorial pages by searching out local and national writers to provide more moderate and progressive views of the issues.

BRENDAN STRAUBEL

Cape Girardeau