Dear Editor...

By Chuck Kajer, Managing Editor

Something was missing from last week's Opinion Page in The New Prague Times... Letters

For the past two months, we have been inundated with letters to the editor in support of one candidate or another. The letters come from many sources. One gentleman in New Hampshire sent letters on a weekly basis regarding the McCain-Obama race. Of course, he sent the same letter to hundreds of other newspapers across the country. Needless to say, we didn't run any of his letters.

It seems an increasing number of political campaigns are relying on letters to the editor as a means of getting the message out. We don't mind running letters, but we can't help but feel we're being used when we get dozens of letters from the same email address, all from different people praising one particular candidate. Often, these letters follow the same formula and you can tell they've been written by someone with the campaign.

This year's race between Tom Wolf and Chris Olson for Scott County Commissioner generated plenty of letters on both sides. The Times doesn't have the space to run all of those letters we receive, so we have to pick and choose. Our letter policy states that we give preference to letters from local people regarding local issues, so if we had a letter from someone with a New Prague, Webster or Elko New Market or another nearby community we were more likely to run it.

We require a daytime phone number so we can call to confirm letters. On one occasion, I called a letter writer and he asked me to read what the letter said.

I read it to him, and he said Yeah

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