Legacy
Chronology of Attempt to Publish a Letter to The Editor
Fri, May 31, 2019 11:07 am
From: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
To : opinion@wvgazettemail.com
BCC: Multiple recipients interested in this subject
Subject: Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
June marks the 45th anniversary of a major historical event in West Virginia history--the Kanawha County Textbook Protest. That event had national repercussions that effect the current Culture War.
Thousands of fine West Virginia citizens have been maligned and slurred due to biased reporting and shoddy research.
I have prepared some web pages that document the FACTS that the Textbook Protesters were NOT NARROW-MINDED, NOT IGNORANT, NOT RELIGIOUS FANATICS, NOT CENSORS, NOT VIOLENT, and NOT RACISTS.
Anyone (especially the media and public school history teachers) who want to have their prejudices challenged can find those FACTS at http://www.insectman.us/testimony/textbook-protester-truth/the-facts.htm .
Karl Priest
Poca, WV
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Tue, Jun 18, 2019 8:41 pm
From: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
To : gazette@wvgazettemail.com, editor@dailymailwv.com, opinion@wvgazettemail.com
Subject: Correct Address
Hello:
Which is the correct address to use to send a Letter to the Editor?
gazette@wvgazettemail.com
editor@dailymailwv.com
opinion@wvgazettemail.com
Thank you.
Karl Priest
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Wed, Jun 19, 2019 8:55 am
From: GM News (news@wvgazettemail.com)
To: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
Subject: Correct Address
Send it to news@wvgazettemail.com
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Wed, Jun 19, 2019 9:06 am
From: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
T0: news@wvgazettemail.com
Subject: Correct Address
I sent the following letter to opinion@wvgazettemail.com on May 31.
Please print the letter ASAP.
Thank you.
Karl
Note: The original letter was placed here.
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Wed, Jun 19, 2019 11:36 am
From: news@wvgazettemail.com
To: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
Subject: Correct Address
We received it. opinion@wvgazettemail.com works also.
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Wed, Jun 19, 2019 12:12 pm
From: editor@wvgazettemail.com
To: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
Subject: Correct Address
opinion@wvgazettemail.com or ben.fields@wvgazettemail.com
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Wed, Jun 19, 2019 5:34 pm
To: editor@wvgazettemail.com
From: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
Subject: Correct Address
Do you mean the May 31 letter?
Thank you. Karl Priest
Note: I did not receive a response.
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Wed, Jun 19, 2019 9:42 pm
From: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
To: editor@wvgazettemail.com Cc opinion opinion@wvgazettemail.com, ben.fields@wvgazettemail.com
Thank you for your reply.
I also received a reply from news@wvgazettemail.com who told me to use news@wvgazettemail.com .
It is confusing.
On May 31 I sent the letter below to opinion@wvgazettemail.com .
Did you receive it?
Thank you.
Karl
Here is the May 31 letter:
Note: The original letter was placed here.
Note: I did not receive a response.
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Sun, Jun 30, 2019 5:20 pm
From: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
To: news@wvgazettemail.com, opinion@wvgazettemail.com, ben.fields@wvgazettemail.com
BCC: Multiple recipients interested in this subject
Subject: My Letter to the Editor
June 30, 2019
Dear Editor:
I sincerely hope that I am wrong.
I checked every day, through today, and did not see a letter I sent on May 31.
On June 19 someone using news@wvgazettemail.com told me that "We received it."
During June I did see:
>A June 13 letter "Impeach this lawless, narcissistic president"
>A June 14 letter "Anti WVU writer Chuck Landon is not welcome in the Gazette-Mail"
>and some other letters.
On June 17, your paper devoted prominent space for an article by the national and local teacher union AFT bullies.
On June 19 there was a very long op-ed by a WVU professor defending the right to strike by teachers
The Charleston Gazette-Mail devoted considerable space to pieces from the Washington Post. I did not see anything from the Washington Times.
PLEASE tell me that it was printed and when. Otherwise, it means that you censored my letter of May 31 (a copy is below my name).
Unless you point out that the letter was published and I missed it, that means that you do not want your readers to be exposed to facts that shatter the sham perpetuated by leftist media and academia regarding thousands of fine West Virginia citizens know as the Kanawha County Textbook Protesters.
I ask, who are the real censors?
Sincerely,
Karl Priest
The May 31 letter:
Note: The original letter was placed here.
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Mon, Jul 1, 2019 10:26 am
From: ben.fields@wvgazettemail.com
To: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
CC: gmoore@wvgazettemail.com
Subject: My Letter to the Editor
Karl,
To answer a few of your questions, firstly, I was not even sure this was being submitted as a letter to the editor, as at one point you refer to it as a press release and news tip. Granted, it was being submitted to the opinion email address so I figured you meant it as some sort of opinion piece, but I was still a little unsure. You even called it that when you accused the Gazette-Mail of censoring you. Also, the letter/press release/news tip that appeared in recent emails omitted the previous lines:
Dear Member of the Media:
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” John Adams
The fact is that you will either censor this Press Release/News Tip, report this Press Release/News Tip with a negative slant, or objectively report this Press Release/News Tip.
This again makes it look like something you wanted covered in a news story. Perhaps this was a misunderstanding. If you meant to convey this as an "open letter" statement to the media, I can tell you we do not run open letters, which is something I've told writers of all stripes from across the state. If you meant it as a header to the content that followed, it was not stated very clearly. No one is censoring you. You're free to criticize us or other media all you want (If you read the recent letter in Saturday's paper from Chris Hamilton, you would realize we do not shy away from criticism and do not censor anyone unless it breaches certain guidelines.)
We've run several op-eds and pieces in June that were not from a liberal perspective, and we ran at least three from out-of-state organizations that opposed the teacher unions. We do not run pieces from The Washington Times because we do not have syndication rights with that organization. We do, however, run multiple local and national conservative columnists, including George Will and Robert J. Samuelson from The Washington Post.
I hope this answers your questions or at least clears up some of the confusion. I'd be happy to run what you've submitted as a letter (minus the "Dear members of the media" section) if that is what you intend. I realize the recent combining of pages and changing email addresses for submission has added some consternation. For the best results, you should contact me directly via the information provided below in the future. I do not know the nature of your relationship with previous opinion editors, but, I'm a blank slate, so starting off with accusations of censorship after a scathing email concerning events that I have little personal knowledge of (though I've been doing some research to try and better understand it) isn't the best way to go. That's just a suggestion, but one thing you really need to do is clarify whether you intend something as a letter to the editor or op-ed. If part of that isn't intended for publication, please be clear on that as well.
Take care,
Ben Fields
Gazette-Mail Opinion Editor
304-348-5129
ben.fields@wvgazettemail.com
Twitter: @BenFieldsWV ot
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Mon, Jul 1, 2019 12:04 pm
From: Karl Priest (kcpriest@aol.com)
To: ben.fields@wvgazettemail.com
Subject: My Letter to the Editor
Ben:
Thank you for replying.
My email was not a personal attack on you. It was simply a statement of facts. I used "censorship" because the great West Virginians, known as the Kanawha County Textbook Protesters, have been slurred with that term for over 45 years. Frankly, it irks me and I want to get the attention of the hypocrites (certainly you would not be included) who have used that slur against those folks.
I sent the Members of the Media item on May 20. It was clearly labeled "News Release/News Tip." The subject was the censorship exhibited by the WV Book Festival. On June 24, I sent an email regrading the lack of response (to the May 20 email) and added that I have information about censorship by Marshall University. Even if the Gazette-Mail disagrees, my claim is certainly newsworthy.
I sent the letter on May 31 and it was clearly labeled "Letter to the Editor." The subject was the 45th anniversary of the Textbook Protest. Again, even if the Gazette-Mail disagrees, that date is a historical fact.
The ball is in your court.
Respectfully,
Karl
Note:
I neglected to include a copy to Mr. Moore (Executive editor) and forwarded the above to him on Tue, Jul 2, 2019 4:48 pm. I did not correct the typo of regarding (regarding).
Posted July 5, 2019: If a response occurs it will be posted here.
I am not sure if the letter was published.
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