State Journal Register (Springfield, IL) has not dropped Coulter. . .yet

[wndycty]

They want to hear from readers, Will Reynolds, who I believe is a fellow DUer from Springfield, is quoted in today's editorial (good job will). I'm not happy they have not dropped her, but I understand why they want to hear from readers, not just people responding to the Media Matters campaign.

-snip-
ediaMatters missed us, thank goodness, so we have not been deluged with anti-Coulter e-mails from across the country. Quite frankly, we are not all that concerned what people in Boise, Idaho, think about us carrying Ann Coulter's column. However, we are concerned with what our real readers think. And we are beginning to hear from some of them.

"I hope the SJ-R does the right thing by dropping Ann Coulter from your paper. Frankly, I don't think anyone who calls all liberals in general 'godless traitors' should have been given space in any respectable paper to begin with. She cheapens the quality of political debate and poisons the waters of American politics," wrote Will Reynolds, who labeled Coulter in his blog ("Where there's a Will, there's a way) as "The Shame of the SJ-R."
-snip-

It's a precarious position. We truly try to have an open and diverse editorial page - the volume of reader letters should attest to that. We are extremely uncomfortable with censorship. We are also interested in what our readers think about keeping Ann Coulter as a columnist.

WE WANT to hear from you - pro and con. Tell us why we should either keep or dump Coulter. You can e-mail [e-mail] or call [phone]. We'll publish some and consider them all.
-end-

http://www.sj-r.com/sections/opinion/stories/109718.asp

[KharmaTrain]

1. This Illinois DUer Will Be Letting Them Know...

The most effective campaigns to make changes like this and on hate radio is on the local level. An old fashioned letter on real paper with a real stamp will get attention...moreso now in the days of email and spamming. Here's the mailing address:

Mailing address:
The State Journal-Register
P.O. Box 219
Springfield, IL 62705-0219

I'm putting together a short & sweet note...telling them that Coultergeist's profanity and invective diatribes do little to advance any political discourse and only seeks to polarize. One wouldn't think of someone refering to blacks with the "n" word and advocating that Ronald Raygun was a rapist and Fred Thompson was gay...that kind of verbage from someone on the "liberal left" would be denounced and never given valuable print space in any respectable newspaper. By publishing Coultergesist, not only is this paper spreading hate, it's condoning it. The political dynamic in this country has changed and I look to newspaper op-ed columns to highlight these changes and solutions not promoting hate and division.

Fortunately my daughter is going downstate later, so this letter will be mailed from somewhere near Decatur and have a local return address.

I'd strongly suggest Illinois DU'ers to drop a note or give a call. Polite, to the point and positive sounding. I have a feeling the right number of honest, sincere letter will go a long way here. Be assured this article is going around to the right wing hives and "freepmail" is sure to be headed their way as well...thus a friendly voice will be even more welcome.

Cheers...

:hi:

[Willinois]

2. This thread made the paper's comment board.

Someone used the tired old tactic of cherry-picking a few offensive threads and claiming that represents the typical DU member. Two of the linked threads were locked by moderators, which makes the tactic even more ridiculous in this case.

link: http://www.sj-r.com/sections/opinion/stories/109718.asp

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. Wow, extremely funny, thanks for the new freeperism, "a disserve to your readers"

That post is definitely the out lier when reading all the other comments. MKJ