The Daily Times

Dear Editor:

I have never before submitted a letter to the editor, but thanks to Larry Henry’s diatribe of Oct. 30, there is a first time for everything.

I could spend time refuting with facts every single assertion in his “communist under every rock” manifesto, but why bother. I’ll simply remember the decency Sen. John McCain showed when correcting an equally delusional, misguided soul at a campaign event in 2008 with, “No ma’am, President Obama is not a Muslim.”

Sadly, that same decency was not exhibited by the editors of The Daily Times with Larry Henry’s letter.

I have long ago given in to the notion it is in The Daily Times’ financial interest to encourage the intellectual equivalent of a food fight with the Your Voice section. But at what cost to our community? Are the spreading and repeating of knowingly false, factually unsubstantiated rumor, urban legend and just plain garbage in the “public interest?”

Does The Daily Times so abdicate responsibility to edit the content of its paper that any assertion, no matter how false or absurd, is perfectly OK for publication? If some troubled citizen wrote a letter advocating the violent overthrow of the republic, would that make it to press? What other sections and articles in The Daily Times are also fact-challenged or just blatant propaganda? Based on past performance, these are legitimate questions.

Certainly this election, like all elections, is important to our city, state and country. Likewise, it is an important time for those who benefit from the privileges of the First Amendment to reflect upon how they are handling the responsibilities that come with those privileges.

Craig Stromer

1820 Southcliff Drive

Maryville, TN 37803