Editor:

It's unfortunate that your efforts to overcome the massive problems you have created for yourselves in your newsroom and within the community continue to manifest themselves primarily in baseless attacks on others. The latest chapter of your desperate campaign has Travis Armstrong labeling the Santa Maria Times "ethically challenged" because members of our news staff are part of our editorial board. You ask where is the dividing line - the "wall," as you put it - between news and opinion.

It's quite simple: Stories that appear on our news pages are written and edited to the highest standards of accuracy, fairness, thoroughness and impartiality. We don't write or edit our stories to please our publisher, our owner or their friends, or to punish the people or groups she or they don't like or agree with. Our editorial pages, meanwhile, provide a robust forum for a wide range of viewpoints, and we print as many or more from folks who disagree with us as from those who share our views.

We also offer nearly unfettered access for letter writers, omitting only those very few that are blatantly offensive or libelous.

As is the case at a great number of newspapers across this country - especially smaller ones - our senior editors do help formulate our editorial positions. We do this openly, with full disclosure to our readers. And we take great care to ensure that the opinions we express in our editorials do not insinuate themselves into our news coverage.

Similarly, we've been totally open about the fact that contributing editor John Lankford, who writes many of our editorials, continues to do work for us even though he now lives out of the area. Lankford is a seasoned pro who stands head and shoulders above anyone else doing similar work on the Central Coast, and we're lucky to have him.

Our readers are not troubled by these circumstances because we've proven we can be trusted to handle these tasks with the utmost honesty and integrity. Those so clumsily wielding power at your newspaper fail to grasp the obvious: It's not about whether you have "walls" separating news and opinion.

It's about honesty and integrity and whether you can be trusted to do the right thing.

Tom Bolton
Executive Edtor
Santa Maria Times