Young Voices

Rory J. Koopmans, B. Admin., #203, 8912-156 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T5R 5Z2

November XVth, MMXI

Hon. Thomas Lukaszuk, MLA, Minister of Education, Progressive Conservative, Edmonton-Castledowns

Dear Thomas:

I must commend Barb Williamson, the Editor Of Letters at The Edmonton Journal. Her platform style IV students & youth in the Journal is excellent. What she does is highlight an opinion by a person under XVIII years of age & puts that person's picture in their letter & their age beside their name at the bottom of their letter. In this way, readers of the paper can extrapolate & see just how valuable the opionions of today's students are.

At the same time, the Journal's insistence on running anonymous blog type or email/facebook entries with phony names & numbers is journalism thats lazy beyond words. They are just trying to cutback Ms. Williamson's salary. It goes against journalistic ethics (& students take note of this) to allow anonymous comments when in fact that letters aren't themselves allowed II be anonymous. Students see that papers insist you give a name, or your initial(s), an address with postal code, & a valid daytime phone number. Why don't they do this with blog/email entries? It seems especially hypocritical of Ms. Williamson II allow the anonymity to exist in the paper version of the paper, especially when regular letter writers aren't allowed to "use pen names."

II Differing Standards Of Quality Is This The Right Way II Teach Journalism Students,

Rory

Source: The Edmonton Journal, Barb Williamson.