Views on the news

John D. Woods, Sr., a sometimes commenter on this blog, suggests below that if I really want to know why readers seem to prefer stories about such subjects as Anna Nicole Smith and Lisa Nowak to more serious topics like Bush/Cheney, Iran and government fraud and waste, I should go to a post on his blog, where he expounds on the subject. Going to that site, I found a claim that he tried to say the same thing on this blog, but that the comment got blocked.

My policy is to let up any comments that abide by our terms of service. Generally that means no bad language or gratuitous abuse and that the commenter stay on the point of the discussion. The latter is generally left to other commenters to police.

The point is I don't recall ever seeing this particular comment, and would not have blocked it if I had. We can take criticism, and if you have read our print edition during the past five years you know that we frequently have run letters from people who disagree with us.

So here is John's post. He makes some valid points, although I would argue that while the media in general caters to the readers's choices, it doesn't create the preferences in the first place.

Glad to have you join us John. Feel free to chime in any time.