I think editors love my letters because they don't have to edit much, including grammar. But, my recent one (that garnered me death threats) did have some SLIGHT editing. They removed specific references I put in and replaced them with vague generalities. Didn't change the meaning at all, and I suspect it had to do with not wanting to mention corporate or product names in letters. Which was fine with me. Then again, this is a 'big city' newspaper so I imagine their ethics are a bit higher.
Usually those letters have disclaimers like they can make editorial changes, but for something that significant I would raise holy hell. I remember when a TV station around here really screwed up and did some obviously yellow journalism-style reporting. Their online forum was full of well-written polite comments saying they did a bad job. All those people got banned or their posts taken down, so I could see somebody taking a constructive comment the wrong way. Which is a horrible trait to have as a member of the journalist class, in my opinion.
That is just rich. You complain about journalistic ethics and what do they do?
When I was in high school, a reporter stopped me and two black students to get our opinions on racial violence in schools. My answer was apparently too complex for the reporter. My face was on the front page of the newspaper with the quote, "I think education is what people in education should be striving for." Thanks. I was in between two black students (both friends of mine who hold almost exactly the same political views as me) who were quoted as saying something to the effect that administrators ought to basically throw the book any offenders. I'm not sure what she was going for but we all thought it was basically just stupid.
Sadly, I didn't learn my lesson well enough as I went on "deep background" with a reporter in college. Admittedly, he was a student reporter but he screwed me royally, when he put my name all over the article as saying certain things then quoting an "anonymous source" who everyone automatically assumed was me because of the juxtaposition.
I did learn my lesson there, though. I went to the real local paper and fed stories to a reporter there--keeping the scandal the student paper had started in the headlines for about 2+ months until the story finally vindicated me.
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
But I did a short stint as a reviewer for a now defunct computer/gaming website back in high school. Emphasis on "short," 'cause the editor changed the scores I gave something in order to keep the site in the reviewee's good graces, of course while leaving my name on it. Needless to say I quit after that.
Q: What do you think of western civilization? Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.
