THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603220017
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
The editorial pages of a newspaper regularly evoke questions from readers: Who writes your editorials and why aren't they signed? Why don't you run columnist x, y or z?
I put those questions, and others, to Keith Monroe. It's been three months since he was named editorial page editor of The Virginian-Pilot, and he just recently filled the last editorial writing position in the department, put books on his shelves and hung up his 1920s photo of the ``Supremes'' headed by William Howard Taft.
Do you see your editorial approach as conservative, liberal or middle of the road?
Let's call it ``aggressive moderation.'' We will be fiscally conservative. We think government has to perform a limited number of necessary tasks that can't be done by other institutions or by individuals. The government should do these well and efficiently, at the least cost to taxpayers, and the books ought to balance.
On social issues, we'll be centrist. And, as befits an institution that benefits from the First Amendment, we will care about Bill of Rights issues. But we don't set out to be doctrinaire. We aren't Republican or Democrat. We'll call 'em as we see 'em. And our focus will be local.
We see the editorial pages as a community forum. We'll give our views and hope to persuade others to share them, but we'll welcome the views of readers, too. We hope to keep the tone conversational, feeling you don't persuade by raising your voice.
What specific issues are most important to you?
From the publisher on down, the intention is to act as a good citizen of Hampton Roads. That means, for instance, supporting regional cooperation. We think the cities of this area must get along together if they want to prosper.
We'll support economic-development plans when they make sense. The prosperity of any region depends on attracting and keeping good jobs and sustaining a robust economy.
Another issue we feel strongly about is quality education for the children who grow up here.
There are three names in the masthead of the editorial page - Bruce Bradley, president and publisher; Cole C. Campbell, editor; and Keith Monroe, editorial page editor. What are your roles on the editorial page?
My role is to edit the editorial page and manage the editorial staff as we pursue our common mission.
Cole Campbell and I are cordial colleagues, and the editorial writers rely on the reporting of his staff to know what's going on in Hampton Roads. But I have no control over what ends up on the news pages and he has no control over what goes on the editorial pages.
We both report to Bruce Bradley. He has the veto power and he also sets the general direction for the editorial page.
Which syndicated columnists can readers expect to find on the op-ed (opposite-editorial) page?
We subscribe to about 30 columnists and run them in rotation. Some we use consistently, others occasionally. We try to mix them up.
The regulars are: William Safire, Maureen Dowd, Suzanne Fields, Molly Ivins, Cal Thomas, Donald Kaul, James J. Kilpatrick, Tony Lewis, Clarence Page, William Raspberry, Tony Snow, Thomas Sowell and George Will.
Those unsigned editorials - who writes them?
They're written by the editorial writers - five of us. They are unsigned because they represent the view of the newspaper, not necessarily any of us personally.
The flip side is that, on the Saturday and Sunday op-ed pages, we're going to run signed columns by the editorial writers which are their personal views of things, so that people can get a feel for who these people are.
Tell us a little about the editorial writers.
Glenn Scott, associate editor, grew up in Smithfield, where his parents owned and operated a weekly newspaper. He graduated from Washington and Lee University, then served two years in the Army before signing on with The Pilot in 1956. He joined the editorial page staff in 1968. Around that time, he also joined the Naval Reserve Intelligence Program, retiring 21 years later with the rank of captain.
Pat Lackey grew up in Kansas and graduated from Wichita State. A Vietnam vet, he was a reporter at the Des Moines Register and an editor for the University of Iowa's public-information department. He came to The Pilot 11 years ago as a reporter. This is his second year in the editorial department.
Kerry Dougherty, who joined the editorial staff in January, is from Trenton, N.J., a graduate of Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. After six years at The Washington Post and three years in Dublin, Ireland, she's been a Pilot reporter since 1984, covering courts, general news, the '94 Senate race and features.
Margaret Edds grew up in Nashville, graduating from Tennessee Wesleyan College. She's been a Pilot reporter since 1974, covering politics and other state issues. Edds has also written two books on Southern black politics. She has worked in Richmond since 1978, and joined the editorial staff earlier this month.
What about you - what is your background?
I'm 48, grew up in Berea, Ohio, and came South to attend graduate school at the University of North Carolina (Greensboro) in 1971. I've been a college English instructor, an advertising creative director and was an editorial writer at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina for six years before coming to The Pilot in 1994.
Do you think the newspaper should endorse candidates? If so, who does the endorsing?
It's part of the editorial board's job to know the candidates, perhaps better than the average voter can. In a sense, we conduct job interviews with them. At the end of the campaign process, we tell readers who we believe is most qualified for each job. But it's clearly one institution's opinion, and no one is compelled to pay attention to us.
Many readers have complained about your policy limiting them to one published letter every six months. Do you plan to change that?
No. We get 800 to 1,000 letters to the editor a month. We'd like to run more, and we'll try to, but that may require us to insist that they be shorter. In fact, letter writers increase their odds of getting in if they keep it pithy. To quote Polonius in Hamlet: ``Brevity is the soul of wit.''
Since we view the editorial page as a forum for the discussion of public-policy issues, we favor letters that address such issues and take a side. We also prefer a cogently argued case to a name-calling crossfire.
Is there any other way for readers to have a voice on the editorial page?
By writing an Another View column. The parameters: It should be an issue of local interest and the author should be local, someone with some claim to expertise on the topic (i.e. a doctor writing on Medicare or a teacher writing on schools, someone with military knowledge writing on Bosnia). The length should be 500-750 words.
To inquire about submitting a letter or column, readers should start with office manager Beth Williams. She's kept the editorial office running for 24 years and can answer almost any question.
She can be reached at 446-2305 or send a fax to 446-2051. Letters and inquiries can also be e-mailed to letters(AT)infi.net - the editorial department's Internet address.
MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net by CNB