News-Record.com

Earlier this week, a Pleasant Garden reader wrote a letter to the editor that said this: "I am writing because I am concerned about the bias that I have seen in your newspaper. It is very obvious your pick for president is John Kerry. You interview liberals and Democrats, and I don't see anyone being interviewed who has something good to say about President Bush."

The writer said a few other things, then closed with this: "President Bush won North Carolina's vote in 2000. The newspaper should reflect the people. I am considering revoking my subscription to your paper."

At first, I didn't think much about it. I don't like losing a reader, but I know people get angry with us, and I respect that. It was that penultimate sentence -- "The newspaper should reflect the people." -- though, that got to me. It is such a common expectation from some readers that it has swirled around in the back of my mind all week.

Putting aside the idea that we only reserve space for liberals -- the publication of the letter itself belies that -- the writer is correct in saying that we try to reflect the community. We want people to see Greensboro, Guilford County and the Triad for what they are. When some readers look at the newspaper and don't see their own reflection -- whether it is what they look like or what they think like or how they view the world -- staring back at them, it upsets them.

As a newspaper, we must reflect more than simply the majority view. We want to show the community in all of its colors and attitudes and lifestyles and opinions. In fact, newspapers try to give voice to the voiceless because the majority -- whether defined by race or gender or politics or whatever -- doesn't seem to have any trouble being heard.

When we published responses from our Reader Advisory Network after one of the presidential debates, an angry reader who saw more Democratic responses than Republican asked why we didn't more evenly balance the responses. We published what we received. Printing an equal number of pro-Bush and pro-Kerry sentiments would have been orchestrating the response, which we wouldn't do and readers wouldn't want.

We want to reflect the community, and that means everyone should see themselves in it from time to time. But that doesn't mean they'll see only themselves. They should see people and places and thoughts that they don't recognize and may not even approve of. That's part of living in a diverse, dynamic democracy.