Not easy to recall now, I know, but there was a time when a weekly newspaper’s readers’ letters page would be a hotbed of lively comment and debate on local topics.
Sadly, that is rarely the case now, with social media long since having become first stop for anyone with an axe to grind.
An extreme instance has been the recent flood of bile surrounding our poor Princess of Wales’ health.
But no day passes without plenty of other lesser examples, with no holds barred and liberal use of gutter language – partly, of course, because it is all so instantly possible, before the worst of our emotions can be reined in.
The Falmouth Packet of July 9, 1988, published a letter that amounted to a public spat between a reporter and a well-known local retailer but which, by comparison with today’s at-each-other’s throats arena, was positively sedate.
The subject matter was another of those what-if projects that were grand in their ambition but never became reality, and the letter also touched on that other hoary old chestnut, media “bias.”
Here’s how that letter, from Mr A Acton-Page, Trago Mills regional branch manager, began:--
“I know your reporter was at the Trago (Longdowns) site meeting because I saw her. She did not speak to anyone from the company.
“I have to assume that her pencil was broken because her report is so inaccurate that although I had promised myself that I would not write on this subject again I am somewhat forced into it.”
Much “fact”-disputing followed before Mr Acton-Page concluded: “It must sadden the thousands of supporters of this project, and the hundreds of job-seekers, that these inaccuracies can be printed in such a way as to appear to negate the wishes of so many of them and whilst you have stated to me that the Packet does not take sides I leave your readers to draw their own conclusion.”
The reporter involved, Moira Holden, fired back with the footnote defending her article and adding: “Mr Acton-Page’s suggestion that I didn’t speak to anyone from his company is unjust because I spoke to his employer, Mr Mike Robertson, at the site meeting and asked for his comments.
“Perhaps Mr Acton-Page is upset that I didn’t speak to him about the proposed Longdowns site, but my policy is to speak to the man at the top.
“If Mr Acton-Page had taken the trouble to enquire within his company, he would have discovered that I had spoken to Mr Robertson.”
So there! Both combatants, you could say, made their points forcefully but in controlled and measured fashion. With not a single emoji or foul word to be seen!
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