can at times, be worse than the problem.

can at times, be worse than the problem.

Mr. Gannon did make and deserves credit for the several good points in his letter that would improve the newspaper articles. He too, made some suggestive points and standards, so unreasonable, that even the greatest papers in the country would not be able to meet. I refer here to two comments he made: (1) “Why not let people have their say in the paper?” and (2) “A newspaper has an obligation to give voice to the views of its citizen readers.” These statements standing alone are great ones, but when applied to coverage reporting there are limitation considerations, such as, how many people with scores of different views should be reported. This is a gray area where even the best of reporters have reasonable disagreements. That is why every newspaper provides its citizens a pulpit to express their views and it’s called “Letters to the Editor.”

I know very little of Mr. Gannon’s newspaper career, but I do know that his letter was a flagrant departure from acceptable conduct codes practiced by most dedicated reporters.

Henry A. Rich

Alexandria

Belated thanks

A belated “thank you” goes out to all those

who came out to the Washington fire hall on Dec. 19, 1997 to donate blood for the American Red Cross Bloodmobile sponsored by the Family and Community Educators (FACE) of Rappahannock County. We know that was an extremely busy week for many people, so we, and the Red Cross, appreciate even more the 30 people who took the time to try and donate blood. We also extend our thanks to the Washington Volunteer Fire Department for making it possible to hold a bloodmobile in Rappahannock County.

We look forward to seeing our regular donors and some new faces at our spring bloodmobile.

Marie Riedel

Marie Davis

Co-chairs, Bloodmobile