MARCH 10, 2006
South Dakota Paper Bans Abortion Opinion
The daily paper of record in South Dakota refuses to run editorials on the abortion ban, because they think everyone will get too upset:
The the biggest abortion rights story in 33 years is taking place in its own backyard, but South Dakota's largest newspaper will not editorialize on the controversial statewide abortion ban just recently approved by its legislature.
"Part of it was that we wouldn't change people's minds, and part of it, regardless of which side we came down on this, is that people would read into it things that are not true," Chuck Baldwin, editorial page editor of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., told Editor & Publisher. "People would think our coverage is tainted, and not just on abortion but on everything."
When asked if such a view could preclude editorials on virtually any controversial issue, Baldwin disagreed. "Abortion is different from other issues," he replied. "It is a hot-button issue at the core of everyone's soul. It will not change no matter what."
Hey, readers: Are you a reporter, editor, newspaper staffer, blogger, journalist- or even someone who's had the slightest course in standing on your own two feet?
WRITE Editor Chuck Baldwin. His snail mail is: Argus Leader, P.O. Box 5034, Sioux Falls, SD 57117-5034. Fax: (605) 331-2294.
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