Letters to MOCO

I've been involved in some discussions at an on-line forum in the past few months. Among the many local topics that come up is the local media (specifically the Kingman Daily Miner).

Some think that the Miner only covers one side of a story and that when they write letters to the editor in rebuttal, they never see their contributions.

I'm not here to say whether or not the Miner is doing that intentionally or not. Personally I have found them very reasonable when I have submitted something to them. I've seen my contributions show up on their website and in the hard copy paper. I don't offer contributions all that often, mainly because I have this blog and I say my peace at will here.

Since I started this blog I have received many emails from readers. I've never posted my email address here but it hasn't stopped anyone from writing to me. So with this in mind I am going to offer something a bit different around here.

If you want to respond to the media with something like a letter to the editor, I will post your submissions that you email to me here at MOCO.

Some ground rules:

If you pen a letter to the editor... send it to the editor as well as to me. Give them the chance to put what you wrote in the paper. I don't have the circulation that they do and they may just include your contribution there.

Nothing personal... I won't post stuff, especially nasty stuff about the editor or any journalist. If you have an issue with an article or a column you may offer a rebuttal to the issues and/or facts that were presented. I'm simply not going to share personal attacks.

Nothing personal again... I won't post snarky attacks against city, county, or state officials or of people that work for those entities. The same will go for citizens as well. I'm not offering this for personal attacks against anyone. Disagree with City Council or a community group all you want, just don't focus on an individual or a group of individuals in a personal nature. It won't show up in the Miner... it won't show up at MOCO.

Tell me what article you are referring to... if you want to address something in an article, clue me in on the article. Send me the link in the email if you can. I'll post the link to the article (if applicable) so that the readers can also be clued into what you may be responding to.

Disclosure... tell me who you are and how you want me to identify you. You don't have to reveal your identity if you do not want to. Signed by concerned citizen will do, but you must have your facts together and certainly no personal attacks. The more you reveal about you the more lenient I will be on sharing what you wrote on this blog. There is going to have to be some level of trust between you and me. I'm going to have to trust that you are who you say you are and in turn -- if you don't want your real name included -- you will have to trust me not to reveal it.

Subject line on email... I get tons of spam already so the subject line should say something along the lines of 'letters to MOCO'.

You do NOT have to agree to my agenda to be included... however, if you disagree with me on something please just respond to the applicable blog posts by clicking on the comments and leaving something there.

It does not have to be political in nature... if you simply want to recognize someone for doing something good in the community I will share it. Won't do the negative stuff, sorry. Feel free to contribute your feelings about the real estate market, the water situation, you views on new development... whatever you want to as long as it fits into the ground rules from above.

I am the final say... If I decide not to share something, you'll get an email back from me telling you so. I may give you a reason for not including your contribution, and I may not. Reasonable discourse and discussion is strongly preferred.

There... now you have another resource to share your views. I hope you will take me up on the offer as you see fit. I hope it helps develop more discussion on important topics here locally.

So who will be the first??