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A morning in Fortuna

Former Times-Standard editor Charles Winkler started the "Coffee With the Editor" series of community chats, and I have continued them, accompanied by publisher Greg Stevens since his arrival last spring. We move around the times and locations, hoping to find the right formula for attracting as many interested people as possible. Sometimes just a few show up; sometimes more than 20.

Yesterday's was at the Hot Brew in Fortuna, and although the coffee was scheduled before a Times-Standard editorial about conflict of interests and Fortuna's mayor, it was timely because many (or most) of the dozen or so attendees had that on their minds.

We had heard the debate could be heated, and I felt guilty arriving late (I'd never been to the Hot Brew before and drove past it twice, looking on the wrong side of the street), not wanting to appear to be ducking the issue. When I joined the conversation, Greg was engaging the group in a discussion about what makes the Eel River Valley communities distinctive from others in Humboldt County. But soon one of the readers brought up "the elephant in the room," kicking off a wide-ranging discussion about that editorial specifically, as well as how editorial stances are determined and written.

I can't speak for everyone there, but I felt it was a respectful dialogue in which I acknowledged why they had problems with the editorial — its tone and background research as well as its conclusions, They listened as I assured them that a prime goal of the T-S opinion page is to give ample opportunities for all perspectives to be heard, and encouraged the writing of letters to the editor.

One of the questions was why the editorial appeared to be missing from our web site, www.times-standard.com. I didn't know the answer at the time, but sometimes the file-coding that must take place for a story or editorial to be posted online is not done correctly. A check with the webmaster when I returned to the office indicated that's what happened, and the editorial was posted.

All in all, Greg and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours in Fortuna, and look forward to our next visit.

Posted by Rich Somerville on December 18, 2007 09:28 AM |

Comments

It is a healthy way to have dialogue in the community. Thank you for holding this type of forum.

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