Editors are the problem

My praise of the Argus Leader this morning fell on deaf ears. I sent an email to Randell Beck congratulating the fine report Jennifer Sanderson put together in today’s issue. I used the receipt verification feature and found out that Beck deleted the email without opening it:

Your message

To: Beck, Randell
Subject: Great job
Sent: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 09:00:33 -0400

was deleted without being read on Thu, 23 Sep 2004 09:22:30 –0400

I did get a response from editor Chuck Baldwin regarding a letter I sent a month ago:

Steve,

Your letter was published on our website.

Chuck Baldwin
Editorial Page Editor
Argus Leader

I thought I was pretty good at finding things on the net, but I can’t find this:

To the Editor of the Argus Leader:

Jeff M. Hart’s August 21 letter claimed that Daschle was “one of the most powerful senators”. Hart said that his job requires him to monitor specific legislation. Perhaps Hart should look at the vote on February 13, 2003. Daschle was one of only twenty senators to vote against the 2003 Omnibus Bill.

Both Democrats from North Dakota voted for it. Both Senators from Iowa and Nebraska voted for it. Even Tim Johnson voted for it.

If Hart wants to see through election year propaganda, then he should be supporting John Thune and not Tom Daschle. You see Daschle has been running ads taking credit for some of the funding provided by the Bill he voted against, such as $900,000 for the Distance Learning program at Dakota State.

The Bill also contained over $3 billion in drought aid, over $73 million for water projects including $7 million for Lewis and Clark, $4 million for the I-29 Interchange at Sioux Falls, $1 million on a SDSU study on ethanol, and many millions for Native Americans.

Now I understand why Daschle doesn’t what the people who have been paying attention to his record in Washington DC to be running ads.

Note that my letter was in response to a pro-Daschle letter that was published in the print edition of the Argus Leader. Is it fair to put my letter online where few, if any, see it?

I sent a question to the Argus Leader blog on where they put the rejected letters on their website. I wonder how long it will take for a response?