Sunday, February 08, 2009
Voices feature is a welcome change of tone
Dan Radmacher
Recent columns
- Kaine saw much progress in his four years
- Virginia voted for gridlock on Tuesday
- Project Vote Smart tries to educate Virginia voters
- America should listen to this Cassandra
From the RoundTable blog
If your only exposure to Voices of the Valleys, our new editorial page reader panel, is what we've published in Horizon these past few weeks, you're missing out.
We've been printing a sampling of some of the best responses to the questions we've asked of the panel every week on page 5 of this section.
But the most impressive part is what's been happening online. It's early, but a real community seems to be developing among the panelists. There's a genuine exchange of opinion by people who come at issues from a broad range of perspectives, but it has a far more civil tone to it than what is often seen online.
As panelist Clonnie Yearout wrote in one exchange, "Looking around the room, I think I'm in the company of a great group of caring people, and if some entity could wave a magic wand over us and give us the absolute, 100 percent true, if I'm lyin' I'm dyin' facts of a given situation, most of us would adjust our views, compromise on most issues, and move the country forward."
I attribute the tone to a couple of related things: We require panelists to use their real names and we encourage them to upload a photo that is included with all their posts.
Unlike the anonymous ranters who too often dominate the comment section of blogs, these people take responsibility for their words. The photos remind everyone that real people are behind the thoughts expressed. You can also click on any panelist's name and read a short biography, so you really know who you're talking with.
None of this eliminates disagreements, and that's not the point. People will always disagree about important and not-so-important issues. Lately, though, it seems we've lost the ability to work past disagreements to find the common threads that unite us as citizens and people.
Too often, rather than attempting to convince, debate and understand those who disagree with us, we attempt to demonize, dismiss and devalue them.
It's gotten ugliest at the political level. Candidates can't just disagree with their opponents on the issues; they must try to prove their opponents are bad Americans.
The Internet, talk radio and shouting-head cable shows seem to thrive on that sort of vitriol.
If you're tired of all that, check out Voices of the Valleys at www.roanoke.com/voices. I think you'll find that it's a refreshing change of pace.
n n n
As you'll read elsewhere in the paper today, The Roanoke Times will start running a combined section Monday.
Monday through Saturday, the content from the old front, Virginia and Business sections will run together in one big section.
The Opinion and Commentary pages currently appear in the Virginia section Monday through Friday. On Saturday, we have only an Opinion page. Under the combined section, we will go to one page on Tuesday and Friday as well.
This is a necessary step that's part of a newspaperwide effort to reduce the amount of newsprint we use (behind personnel, newsprint is our largest expense, and rates have gone up dramatically in recent years).
The Commentary page is an important page, giving voice to a wide spectrum of viewpoints. It is a page solely devoted to printing the viewpoints of others.
To minimize the impact of this change, we have redesigned the Tuesday and Friday Opinion pages. We'll use less space for editorials -- our opinion -- and for the editorial cartoon. We'll make space for one longer commentary, preferably local, and nearly as many letters as we usually get in.
We're also moving some of our regular, syndicated columnists around. The Miami Herald's Leonard Pitts, who appeared on Tuesday, will move to Wednesday. The Boston Globe's Ellen Goodman, who appeared on Friday, will move to Sunday.
In order to preserve maximum space for local commentary, we will drop two of our other syndicated columnists: Eugene Robinson and Michael Gerson, both of The Washington Post.
Our primary purpose here is to provide a rich forum for dialogue and discussion about the important issues facing the region. We'll keep our focus on that goal as we adjust to the economic realities facing everyone these days.
Keep an eye on our pages, and let me know what you think of the changes.
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
