A Response to Mel Chafetz’s Editorial

Print More

I read the recent article in the Observer “What do People Mean” with some interest. I am a former resident of Suffield and RTC Chairman but still read the Observer to keep up with Town news. I must confess that I did hold the opinion that the paper was biased on the liberal side of the political aisle.

It used to be that it was difficult for a conservative to read the Observer and as Mel identified, more often than not, it was Rick’s cartoons which created that impression. I think that if you look at the recent years of the Observer (March, May and July 2017 and April, June and September of 2018) you would see a number of cartoons that cast President Trump in a very negative light (to put it mildly) and there were others prior to this on other national issues.

Mel’s point, that by stating that the views are not necessarily held by the staff of the Observer and that this negates the leftist lean of the publication does not ring true for one obvious reason. This is because, for at least as long as I can recall, there has never been any cartoon published by the Observer that could be objectively characterized as pro Trump, pro Republican, or pro any Republican position on any national issue. Also noticeably absent is any cartoon critical of national Liberal politicians.

I think the better point to be made in the article would have been a recognition that there were quite a few cartoons that were offensive to most conservatives in the past but that recently there seems to have been a discernible attempt to avoid polarizing national issues.

Bob Brooks
Winter Garden, Fl.

Comments are closed.