Over the years I've had letters published in Plattsburgh area newspapers. After submitting a letter via snail mail or email, I never had a phone call from any local paper verifying that I wrote the letter.
Recently Seven Days, the alternative weekly newspaper across the lake in Vermont, has published on two different occasions letters of comment I had emailed. Both times the 7D editor called to verify that I was the author of the submitted piece.
It didn't surprise me when I spotted this editorial statement in the letters department of the Press-Republican in its March 2nd, 2010 edition:
This isn't the first time such a mistake has been made. And it probably won't be the last. Why? Notice that the editor states that the PR verifies a certain percentage of letters, not all of them.
When I submitted my second letter to Seven Days, the editor there still called me long distance to verify its authorship, even though she knew my email address from my first one. After all, maybe someone was "spoofing" my address.
OK, so the PR is understaffed and can't verify all letters -- well, until a lawsuit forces changes. But if I called a phone number and it was out of service, I would pass on the letter.
But what do I know? I'm just a blogger.
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