I think we all owe a thank you to the Howells for their willingness to publish controversial letters in the Star newspaper. I am sure they both disagree with most of the things I write about but I must say they are fair to letter writers, in my experience. Their newspaper has a liberal bent to it, for sure, and I would encourage them to balance the news a little more.
The Ravalli Republic doesn’t exist anymore, as many have noticed, as a local Bitterroot Valley newspaper. The editor of the Missoulian is the editor of the Ravalli Republic and she wants the Bitterroot Valley to look and smell just like Missoula.
I have written four letters to the editor of the Republic in recent months and, of course, they are not printed. I have emailed and called and to most they have not even responded, and if they respond they just say they won’t print them without any bona fide reason. I personally feel an open dialog on issues is healthy for our nation, state and community but the Ravalli Republic, or any of the Lee Newspapers for that matter, doesn’t want an open dialog what-so-ever, especially on the ex-gay issue or any article stating anything contrary to the gay agenda. To get the rest of the news on issues you have to go to the internet or other sources.
The Star is somewhat handicapped because it only comes out once a week on Wednesdays. A recent move by the Missoulian editor to start the Ravalli Republic to come out on Wednesdays through Sundays is an apparent attempt to hurt the Star.
It has been sad to see the demise of our once local Ravalli Republic. Not only don’t they care what the values are in the Bitterroot they want to change them.
The Ravalli Republic and Missoulian are expert con-artists with their swapping stories so that if you get the Missoulian on weekends you are reading many of the stories from the Republic that you already read if you get the Republic during the week. I remember not too many years ago when they started doing that there were complaints and the Missoulian editor apologized as did the Republic editor (back then they had separate editors) and said they would never do it again. It has been my experience that around 50% of the articles in the two papers are reruns and recycled from the other paper.
Not only that but while the Star stays close to the same size, the Missoulian and Republic are getting about as narrow as toilet paper. Come to think about it . . .
When you go to get your Ravalli Republic now you have to take your magnifying glass along with you to find out what corner of the paper box it is hiding in. How sad it is that one has to save up a whole week’s worth of newspapers just to be able to start a fire!
Some seem to fear an open dialog on issues such as homosexuality, abortion and many other issues. I am glad we have one newspaper in the valley that does not “censor” the dialogs and allows them to happen.
Dallas D. Erickson
Stevensville