Mixed feelings on less editorials

I have mixed emotions about The Olympian’s decision to do away with its editorial page on Monday and Tuesday.

I understand the reasoning behind the move.  With fewer employees it became more difficult to do a full editorial page every day.   Brad Shannon has done a reasonably good job but his knowledge and expertise on the community is limited.   Brad is well-known and respected on the hill where he covered the antics and activities of the state legislature.  I suspect that he would much rather be back at the state capitol reporting on events than editing an editorial page.

But, he was stuck.  With fewer reporters, it became more and more difficult to do a local editorial everyday.   In addition, he had to verify and edit letters to the editor.   The weekends were especially difficult and Monday’s paper usually was a recycled editorial from other news sources.

On the other hand, The Olympian had become the poster boy (pun intended) for the downtown Olympia progressive movement.   The paper’s editorials supported every left-wing, nutty, costly idea to come along.   I never saw any thought given to opposing ideas.

From that perspective, a few less editorials might be good.

However, I think this community needs The Olympian and needs to support the paper.   It is one of the few things that keeps us informed as to what our government is doing to us.

(Personal note:   I applied for appointment to the paper’s editorial board.  As far as I know, no decision has been made regarding that appointment.)