The First Amendment gives every American the right to speak his or her mind about how government works — or doesn’t work — in City Hall, over at the Courthouse, up at the State House and all the way to Capitol Hill and the Oval Office.
In America, quite frankly, we are too complacent about this inalienable right, one that was a foreign notion to most people when the founders of the United States incorporated it into the nation’s core of existence. In most nations, speaking critically about a local official, governor or king was something for which you could be shot or hanged. That’s still the case in far too many countries today.
It’s a tremendously powerful right, but also a tremendously powerful responsibility.
Newspapers figure in to the robust exercise of this right in a way that other media attempt to mimic, but none can duplicate. This is particularly true of the editorial and opinions page. In The Herald’s case, we call our page devoted to opinions DailyViews. It’s designed to give readers exposure to the viewpoints of people they agree with, as well as the views of people with whom they disagree.
The names of the people responsible for every locally produced editorial are displayed at the top of this column. The names and faces of opinion writers whose columns appear on this page appear with their words.
But more importantly, DailyViews is designed to let readers speak their minds about issues of the day. Some of these opinions are labeled “guest commentary” and appear in column form with the author’s name and photo. Others are shorter letters that include the writer’s name and city of residence. As a reader, you are confident that you are reading the real opinions of real people because we authenticate the sources of these submissions.
On Wednesday, we let you down.
A letter regarding a political issue — a writer’s opinion of the performance of Worth County sheriff’s candidate Mike Hill — was published under a falsified name. Mary Aills’ name appeared with the letter, but she had nothing to do with its submission.
Instead, when we followed our verification procedure, Theresa Thompson of Worth County falsely claimed to be Mary Aills. Why she lied and whether it was part of a bigger covert scheme to discredit Mike Hill’s candidacy isn’t clear, but what is crystal clear is Theresa Thompson wanted the privilege to express her opinion, but also wanted to force someone else to bear any responsibility for what she wrote. We would also suggest that her blatant prevarication about authorship suggests that her criticisms were also fabricated.
As a result of this incident, Herald editors will closely review our policies and guidelines for publishing letters and guest commentaries to ensure that this sort of chicanery doesn’t happen again while still making certain that the free exchange of ideas and opinions isn’t staunched. Please accept our apology along with our pledge to be more vigilant.
— The Albany Herald Editorial Board