“In my opinion, this type of news is something that would have been more appropriately issued forth in a trade magazine or newsletter for witches and proponents of the occult, and does not merit front-page exposure of this magnitude in a mainstream newspaper such as The Standard-Times. Whatever this man might have been to his family, friends and followers, I can certainly respect that, but to have this particular paper display all of this as front-page, headline news, in my view, is inappropriate … In my view, more discretion should have been exercised here by the editor as to how and where an article such as this should have appeared in The Standard-Times.”

One wonders at the backlash that would result if a local Witch objected to a front-page feature on a dead Christian clergyman (Should such news be kept to appropriate “trade magazines”?). Was this a representative letter that deserved airing in print, or was it some misguided editor’s latest stab at what passes for journalistic “balance” these days. In either case, shame on the paper for choosing this story to give space to a crank letter.
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