Marsha Smith
Publisher, Kern Valley Sun

 Election time is a time when opinions are at their strongest, many times causing tempers to flair either due to overwhelming passion in beliefs or fear that others’ beliefs could change the direction or outcome of their own. Though common everywhere it is so much more transparent in small communities such as our own. We are more concentrated here and are acquainted with most of our fellow community members. We can find ourselves being pitted against one another very easily.

    The Kern Valley Sun is historically non-partisan when it comes to elections. I have said many times that we do not endorse candidates or propositions but we do on occasion endorse local issues such as the hospital, cemetery or school bonds and stand behind those endorsements. The staff at the Sun is very diverse politically, with as many different opinions and passions as each of you possess. Break time conversations can be very interesting, but we set our limits and respect the rights of others to have different opinions. The difference is it is our job to stay unbiased and keep our personal political choices out of print.      We try our best to be fair and cover all events in the valley. Sometimes we come up short or someone feels we did not give his or her particular event enough coverage or someone else’s too much. This is inevitable, regrettably, but true. This was the case last week with articles covering the Americana Rally and the Freedom Festival. The problem does not lie with any bias, but in the length of the articles, and after reviewing the complaint, I agree that yes, one was quite long compared to the other which some may construe as bias. There was no bias intended. Two reporters were assigned, one to each story and both articles were good ones, although the longer one should have been edited for length, and we take responsibility for that. One rally has been in existence for three years and had a much longer program to cover, while the other was brand new this year; still a well produced and received program, but shorter. Bottom line however is the reporters’ articles are reviewed and edited by the editor, who is ultimately responsible for content and layout, under the direction of myself, as publisher, and in this instance we came up short.

    During the course of any election or controversial community issue, newspapers accept the realization of taking flack. No matter what we cover or print, we cannot please everyone. It is just a fact that if we cover one event there’s a good chance the opposing side will be mad and vice versa. The phones rang off the hook, screaming “equal time” when we covered the Democratic convention; yet the Republican convention had not yet taken place. When it happened, it did get “equal coverage” and again the phone calls, “equal time.” Apparently they missed or had forgotten the issues a few weeks prior.

    We welcome constructive criticism and I have always had an open door policy to talk with anyone…with the understanding that the conversations are civil and aren’t personal to a staff member. Everyone has a right to their opinion and if we print an article or letter to the editor you do not agree with, write one with your opinion or come in and see me. Please don’t leave threatening messages, anonymous or otherwise; that won’t help the matter. As publisher I am used to having a target on my back. Letters to the editor are not the opinion of the newspaper, nor should anyone take a letter as gospel without checking out facts for themselves. We will not print letters that are slanderous or copies of Internet propaganda. Letters are for your own thoughts, not someone else’s attempt to brainwash via the Internet.

    Maybe one of the issues that brings ire is that the Sun has taken a slightly different direction the last few years in not just covering fluff, but actually getting to the heart of some issues and reporting. If the key public institution is having issues we are not going to print “all is peachy,” if we have a teacher accused of a crime we are not going to ignore it because he was a favorite with some students, we are not going to sweep under the rug a local business man or woman’s criminal actions to protect advertising dollars or for any other reason, nor are we not going report a valley couple being one of the first gay marriages because it is unpopular, it’s news.  We are also going to continue to support our local school districts, hospital district and any other local issues we feel will benefit our community by presenting both sides equally, even if we endorse an issue.

  Whether you are Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Green Party, etc., every entity or person has a right to equal time in the Kern Valley Sun, but don’t throw darts if you are not willing to state your opinion with a signature. This election has brought about some nasty accusations due to what I believe to be passion and fear. All I can say to you is that we are all in this together and pitting against one another is not the answer. Whatever the outcome of the election has brought to bear, good or bad in your eyes, we all need to move forward and look at your community members again as friends.