The Planet - a user's guide

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

By Grace Hammond

This isn’t about global warming.

That’s not to say The Planet staff didn’t hear a lot about global warming last week. We were bombarded with responses to the opinion piece we printed on Jan. 2, written by Bob Stuart, which lambasted the thesis on global warming published by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and included a quote that “the global warming myth is a red herring.”

Many readers questioned The Planet’s “agenda” in running this guest opinion. It was irresponsible propaganda, they argued. Those on the other side of the global warming debate congratulated us with “good for you” gusto. “Somebody had to say it,” they wrote. “Way to go, Planet!”

The Planet can’t really accept the credit or blame for the piece because, well, we didn’t write it. Rather, we supplied Mr. Stuart with a forum to share his opinion on the IPCC thesis. The week prior, in the Dec. 26 issue, we published the opposing viewpoint in Nancy Taylor’s column, “A green year’s end,” which stated that “a valid connection was made between climate change and peace when Al Gore and the IPCC received the Nobel Peace Prize [this year].”

These contradicting pieces beg the question: What side is The Planet on? If the paper’s not a “liberal hippie rag” (a common complaint) or a “right-wing Neocon publication” (a more common complaint), what is it?

In many ways, The Planet is the sum of its parts. We strive for non-bias in our hard news stories and our staff reporting. But our paper is also intentionally peppered with local opinion, humor and satire - colorful, often controversial and diverse arguments that joust and spar with each other, often over the course of many issues. We print perspectives that run the political gamut because we believe in dialogue - that quintessentially American offshoot of the First Amendment.

The Planet’s staff is diverse and mirrors the composition of the valley. We’re Republicans, Democrats and Independents. We’ve been (or still are) ranchers, lawyers, librarians, artists and ski bums. Some of us moved here recently; others are seasoned Jacksonites with kids in the school system and parents at River Rock. We work hard to give voice to opinions as diverse as ourselves and, in turn, as diverse as the  valley. Do we squirm while we do it? Sometimes.

Do we print opinions some of us disagree with? Every week. As editor, overcoming my reluctance to publish opinions I find problematic in favor of promoting dialogue has proved my biggest challenge.

No matter how vehemently you might disagree with an opinion published in The Planet, you’ll never have to worry that we will refuse to publish a well-articulated counterpoint. But it’s up to you to share it - as a letter to the editor, a column, an op/ed or a comment on our website. We can’t give voice to the valley if people in the valley don’t speak up. So next time you see something you don’t agree with, join the fray. After all - it’s your Planet.
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