Letter to the Editor by Ronald Deady of Post Falls, Idaho
In August 2014, I asked the then editor of The Coeur d’ Alene Press (Mike Patrick) if Mr. Duane Hagadone condoned the mindset of The Press. He explained that I was welcome to speak to Mr. Hagadone. I tried. You see, I knew that he (Mr. Hagadone) understood how to keep cooperation rolling in Coeur d’ Alene, and surely would be taking a dim view of the unnecessary combative approach that we live with due to The Press.
The factions in this town are palpable and unnecessarily undermine civility. You may opt to believe that the approach sells papers – then again, I hear many fellow citizens comment that they opt not to take the paper because of it.
We conclude that the ‘townies’ (composed of liberals and conservatives) want only to keep control – and it is worth it for the newspaper to side only with their grossly limited numbers. A very serious combative impasse therefore exists in this community due to the newspaper’s approach.
Most of our citizens came from across America and are largely conservative in voting and in mindset and opt not to be in an endless ‘contest’ with The Press. We believe that a fair discussion of both liberal and conservative issues is sorely lacking, and the mainstream newspaper is way out of step. It surprises most subscribers (and our citizens) that The Press chooses not to learn the mentality of today’s Coeur d’Alene.
By the way, I also asked Mr Patrick to please stop using only bylines from the Associated Press (AP). He said he could and has, but we note that it still carries only AP stories right out of the extremely liberal New York Times. In comparison, a new community newspaper (the Kootenai Journal) appears to be respected and fair.
