When I pick up a newspaper or magazine, the first section that I go to is the Letters page. It informs me of the issues of the day and also gives me an insight into the quality of the readership and hence the publication.
In this respect, I must say that I find the Nation rather disappointing.
You have about a dozen regular letter writers, presumably farangs retired in Thailand, who probably rush to the letters page each morning, to see whether they have been “published” or not. Sadly, what is written, not only reflects on the smallness of their existence, but also on the poor quality of your sub-editing.
Almost without fail, one letter writer attacks another by name. I can’t remember seeing this in the many, many newspapers and magazines I’ve been reading over the last 50 years.
In a letter, where another writer is referenced derogatorily, why can’t your sub-editors remove the person’s name and replace it with “as another correspondent wrote”? This is the practice in most other newspapers and magazines.
If you did this, about a dozen people will be deprived of their raison d’etre and the Nation’s sales will drop by a similar number but the quality of the discourse on the Letters page, will improve considerably.
(Published in The Nation, Thailand on 15 February 2018)
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/your_say/30338874
© Percy Aaron
Wow Laos 