• The Red Phone sounds off Saturday in The Times. We invite you
to call us 24/7 to ask questions, report a complaint, give us a
tip, offer an amusing tale of the short variety or just want people
to know about something to do with Morgan Hill and the surrounding
territory. We’ll check it out an
d have the answer in an upcoming column.
• The Red Phone sounds off Saturday in The Times.
We invite you to call us 24/7 to ask questions, report a complaint, give us a tip, offer an amusing tale of the short variety or just want people to know about something to do with Morgan Hill and the surrounding territory. We’ll check it out and have the answer in an upcoming column.
Leave us a message on the Red Phone at 779-4106, x206 or check out www.morganhilltimes.com and click on the Red Phone icon. We won’t print your name or share it with others. However, we do need your name and phone number for verification purposes.
about those opinions
“I saw your editorial called “John Kerry for new leadership,” said a caller about the Opinion page piece in the Oct. 30 edition. “Why don’t you print opinions for the other side? Please cancel my subscription.”
This was one of several calls we received from readers irate abou the endorsement.
During the election season, newspapers – and just about every other media outlet – offer endorsements to help voters make up their minds. Endorsements are the opinions of the paper’s editorial board; they are not news stories.
The John Kerry piece was an endorsement for the presidential race and followed those for school board, mayor, council and other local races.
Endorsements are not designed to give both sides; they are strictly our educated opinion. Endorsements are written after discussion, thought and study of issues or candidates. Readers are, of course, welcome to take them or leave them.
We do, however, welcome letters to the editor from everyone on all sides of an issue and do not select only those we agree with. In fact, The Times has a long reputation of printing every letter we receive though, because our readers tend to be fairly wordy and submit letters taking up quite a bit of space, they sometimes take awhile to appear.
You may have noticed that, recently, the editorial pages have expanded from one to two and sometimes three pages just to accommodate the number of letters about the election.
We are sorry the caller wanted to cancel his subscription over this endorsement.
We at The Times work hard to be as fair and complete as possible with news stories and have for more than 110 years. But we reserve the right to our opinion. We would welcome the caller back to his hometown newspaper at any time.
He’s wearing a what?
“The little man on the front of your building has a condom attached. I’ll bet you won’t have the nerve to put that in the paper.”
Well, caller, Red Phone is nothing if not nervy. The little man, actually a mural of Hiram Morgan Hill reading a copy of The Times, was painted in 1994 by John Cerney. Old Hiram has been decorated by unknown jokers with glue or gum but it is not a condom. We would have noticed and done something about it immediately.
In the next few months the building’s exterior will undergo renovation and, while Hiram will remain to grace The Times, he will be spruced up and the offending substance will be removed. But, caller, please. This is nothing to be anonymous about. Next time, just come inside and let us know. We are really nice people.
Casinos R Us
Heck no to a casino: “We don’t need any casinos in our area. To me they’re a disgrace to the American Indians who’s land we took away and there’s no way we can make up for that by putting casinos in place. Thank you for listening.”
Listening is a Red Phone specialty. That’s what it does (even on those rare occasions when it really doesn’t want to). Thanks for the call and your opinion has been heard.
Attention Red Phone fanatics! Stuck at work and not able to pick up the phone and comment to the Red Phone? Well do we have a solution for you! Now you can sneak onto www.morganhilltimes.com, click the Red Phone icon and quietly e-mail
