Pub. Note: This editorial has has drawn more comment than anything we’ve posted in the five-year existence of this website—and the vast majority of the comments have been positive, similar to the two in the space provided at the end of the editorial. Your comments are welcome, as well.
We also should clarify the difference between column and non-column content. Opinions are permitted in personal columns, like those by Rick Stanton, Ted Leonhardt, Don Riggs, Bill Knudsen and the MARKETING IMMORTALS, as well as my editorials/columns. Opinion is not permitted in straight news stories, like Newsmakers and other non-column content (e.g., Emmy Winners, Copacino+Fujikado and Ste. Michelle, Costacos Brothers Book).
In the wake of Rick Stanton’s slams of President Trump in his last column (before Rick takes a long hiatus), we received a surprising number of negative comments, including one from a principal of one of the Sponsors of this website.
That person Unsubscribed from our weekly MailChimp Updates, with the explanation that: “I don’t want to read political opinions in my marketing material.” And several others questioned whether political opinions belong on a site dedicated to marketing communications.
A bit of history is called for.
The marketingnw.com website is the successor to the MARKETING newspaper, which was published monthly for 30 years, through the end of 2017. I underline the word news because the paper was and this website is—first and foremost—a journalistic endeavor. The subject matter happens to deal primarily with marketing communications.
That said, any person—let alone a president of the United States—who calls the media “the enemy of the people” and works daily to undermine the First Amendment deserves to be panned (nay pilloried) to the maximum extent possible—in this, or any other, journalistic medium.
To one who did the “hat trick” in my first career—as a journalist for hire (the Associated Press wire service/The Seattle Times daily/The Auburn Globe-News weekly)—the problem is clear.
It’s called the Internet, which turned news management on its head. The unbiased “gate-keeper” editors of decades past were joined—and soon overwhelmed—by the unchecked and strident voices on social media. And, abetted by people like our president—“fake news” has become a reality and ever more difficult to distinguish from truth.
This site welcomes dissenting views. And—we reserve the right for our content providers to engage in political criticism—when it’s due. In the case of President Trump, that criticism is both well-deserved and totally defensible on a site where journalism is Job One.
—Larry Coffman, publisher
P.S. After sharing the above commentary with Rick prior to publication, he wrote this:
“Successful advertising communications requires an understanding of the popular culture—good and bad. That includes fads/trends, media usage, and the mood of various demographics in regard to things like fashion, food, consumer shift and, yes, politics.
“Freedom of speech, human rights, our freedom to vote and our democracy all are under siege. I choose to fight. As ad legend Bill Bernbach said so well, ‘The real risk is standing for nothing.’”
Thanks Larry for standing up for journalism and telling us about the pressure from your advertiser. It makes me proud to be included in the pages of MarketingNW. And thank you Rick Stanton for sharing Trump’s – not surprising- bad golf behavior. Larry remind me to buy a full page ad in next years LINK. Ted
Sorry that I am late to the party but I endorse all of the points you made Larry in the above column. We need responsible journalism now more than ever. This is not a time to shrink from those responsibilities. As former Chair of the Murrow Professional Advisory Board at Washington State University, I learned in much greater detail the positive impact that that Edward R. Murrow had on our country when he stood up to Joe McCarthy.
“No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are accomplices.” Edward R. Murrow
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