Ignoring an error
On June 26, 2006 I wrote and posted an article entitled—“Freedom of speech includes what?” It was a reaction to an editorial published in the Peoria Journal Star. The original Star editorial was critical of the Senate’s attempt to begin the process for a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit flag burning as a form of speech. I also sent that article to the Peoria Journal Star as a letter to the editor.
The Peoria Journal Star printed that letter on July 14, 2006, page A4 with the headline “Congress should rein in libertine Supreme Court.” The letter as edited and published in the Star read:
“Journal Star editorial writers continue to demonstrate either their ignorance of U.S. history or their lack of understanding of what the Constitution actually means.
The headline for the June 26 editorial is “Fly the flag freely, not because you have to.” The editorial is a response to a proposed constitutional amendment to stop “desecration of the flag.” The headline is incorrect: The amendment is not a requirement that one must fly the flag, it is intended to rein in one of the many unconstitutional rulings by a libertine Supreme Court that has relied upon precedent and its own value system (or lack thereof) to reach decisions, rather than the Constitution’s wording.
This is not new. The Supreme Court invented the supposed “right” to murder an unborn child. The court rewrote the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment dealing with religion, changing it to a wall of separation between church and state. The court declared that the sin of homosexual behavior could not be legislatively prosecuted as a crime.
The editorial writers’ position seems to be that if the court reaches a decision, no matter how outlandish, everyone must accept it as final and irrevocable. I don’t think so.
Congress has for far too long allowed the court to get away with disregarding the language and intent of the Constitution. It is about time Congress started to stop the Supreme Court from handing down ridiculous rulings.
Congress has every right to propose an appropriate constitutional amendment.”
Because of an error in the published letter, I wrote the following letter and sent it to the newspaper.
I always appreciate your publishing one of my letters as you did on July 14, 2006—“Congress should rein in libertine Supreme Court.” However, in the process of editing my approximately 650 word letter to about 250 words you changed the meaning of one of the sentences.
I wrote: “The Amendment is not a requirement that one must fly the flag. It is intended to rein in one of the many unconstitutional rulings by a libertine Supreme Court that has relied upon their own value system (or lack thereof) to reach decisions rather than the wording and history (precedent is the legal term) of the United States Constitution.”
In editing my letter, you wrote: “The amendment is not a requirement that one must fly the flag, it is intended to rein in one of the many unconstitutional rulings by a libertine Supreme Court that has relied upon precedent and its own value system (or lack thereof) to reach decisions, rather than the Constitution’s wording.”
I never wrote that the Supreme Court relied upon precedent to reach these obscene rulings! Just the opposite is true as my original letter stated. The Supreme Court ignores long established precedent to unconstitutionally amend the Constitution by court rulings rather than the constitutionally mandated methods.
Please publicly correct your error so that my letter reads as it was intended to be read. Thank you.
The letter requesting a correction of the previous letter was mailed the next day on July 15. One week after the original letter was published I have not seen the correction requested.
Did I miss it? Do you think they will correct their error or let it go uncorrected?
I know that we all make mistakes. Certainly, errors have been made before when letters are edited by the paper. But, doesn’t the paper have an obligation to correct those errors when the errors are pointed out to them? Every day that a delay occurs lessens the impact of the correction if it does eventually occur.
Makes one wonder. How many other mistakes have they made when editing letters to the editor? How many other recognized errors still go uncorrected? How much trust can one place in the accuracy of the letters to the editor that are edited and printed? How accurate is the Peoria Journal Star???
The Peoria Journal Star printed that letter on July 14, 2006, page A4 with the headline “Congress should rein in libertine Supreme Court.” The letter as edited and published in the Star read:
“Journal Star editorial writers continue to demonstrate either their ignorance of U.S. history or their lack of understanding of what the Constitution actually means.
The headline for the June 26 editorial is “Fly the flag freely, not because you have to.” The editorial is a response to a proposed constitutional amendment to stop “desecration of the flag.” The headline is incorrect: The amendment is not a requirement that one must fly the flag, it is intended to rein in one of the many unconstitutional rulings by a libertine Supreme Court that has relied upon precedent and its own value system (or lack thereof) to reach decisions, rather than the Constitution’s wording.
This is not new. The Supreme Court invented the supposed “right” to murder an unborn child. The court rewrote the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment dealing with religion, changing it to a wall of separation between church and state. The court declared that the sin of homosexual behavior could not be legislatively prosecuted as a crime.
The editorial writers’ position seems to be that if the court reaches a decision, no matter how outlandish, everyone must accept it as final and irrevocable. I don’t think so.
Congress has for far too long allowed the court to get away with disregarding the language and intent of the Constitution. It is about time Congress started to stop the Supreme Court from handing down ridiculous rulings.
Congress has every right to propose an appropriate constitutional amendment.”
Because of an error in the published letter, I wrote the following letter and sent it to the newspaper.
I always appreciate your publishing one of my letters as you did on July 14, 2006—“Congress should rein in libertine Supreme Court.” However, in the process of editing my approximately 650 word letter to about 250 words you changed the meaning of one of the sentences.
I wrote: “The Amendment is not a requirement that one must fly the flag. It is intended to rein in one of the many unconstitutional rulings by a libertine Supreme Court that has relied upon their own value system (or lack thereof) to reach decisions rather than the wording and history (precedent is the legal term) of the United States Constitution.”
In editing my letter, you wrote: “The amendment is not a requirement that one must fly the flag, it is intended to rein in one of the many unconstitutional rulings by a libertine Supreme Court that has relied upon precedent and its own value system (or lack thereof) to reach decisions, rather than the Constitution’s wording.”
I never wrote that the Supreme Court relied upon precedent to reach these obscene rulings! Just the opposite is true as my original letter stated. The Supreme Court ignores long established precedent to unconstitutionally amend the Constitution by court rulings rather than the constitutionally mandated methods.
Please publicly correct your error so that my letter reads as it was intended to be read. Thank you.
The letter requesting a correction of the previous letter was mailed the next day on July 15. One week after the original letter was published I have not seen the correction requested.
Did I miss it? Do you think they will correct their error or let it go uncorrected?
I know that we all make mistakes. Certainly, errors have been made before when letters are edited by the paper. But, doesn’t the paper have an obligation to correct those errors when the errors are pointed out to them? Every day that a delay occurs lessens the impact of the correction if it does eventually occur.
Makes one wonder. How many other mistakes have they made when editing letters to the editor? How many other recognized errors still go uncorrected? How much trust can one place in the accuracy of the letters to the editor that are edited and printed? How accurate is the Peoria Journal Star???
posted by Christian Gunslinger at 5:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home