As a former desk editor and current editorial board member at The Daily Tar Heel who is living at Duke this semester, I rarely praise The Chronicle. In fact, I often toss it away in disgust after finding a few too many style errors or reading yet another worthless column.
I disclose that information not to be snide but instead to emphasize the lengths to which The Chronicle must go to overcome my bias and earn my praise. Yet earn my praise it has.
I applaud The Chronicle's decision to make the editorial board independent from the news side of the paper. Just as there must be a wall between news and business at any reputable paper, so too there must be a wall between news and opinion.
Having news editors on a paper's editorial board allows for the board to form quick and informed opinions, but making news editors' views public destroys the integrity of the paper's news coverage. Thank you for showing that the separation of news from opinion remains a worthy ideal toward which to strive.
Scott Spillman
UNC/Trinity '08
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.