Letter as Apology

At the moment, a very popular thing for magazines and newspapers to do is to publish letters to the editor. Sure, it's not exactly a new thing to do, but recently it seems to be the print media's (or is it medium's) answer to the comments section of a blog. Sometimes these letters are banal compliments, but oftentimes they are commentary on recent articles, spotting flaws, giving critiques... in other words, exactly like the comments section of a blog, except with possibly more editorial scrutiny. There aren't many letters published, for instance, advertising free Cialis.

My beef is not with the letters; I can take them or leave them. My beef is with their publication. Sometimes a letter comes up which points out, rightly or wrongly, that something published was offensive to someone or other. I'm not bashing people who are easily offended (I'm not here, anyway), and they have a perfect right to write in and tell the publication how they feel. But why does the publication publish those letters?

I think it has a lot to do with apology. In this case, publication of the letter seems to sate those who feel that offense was given, and at the same time the publication doesn't have to issue an apology. It's the ideal. Certainly, there are times when the publication might get letters both for and against a point of view, but when it comes to offensiveness, they simply publish a letter and move on.

It ain't good enough, guys. Simply airing a complaint does not resolve it. If you don't wish to resolve the complaint at all, don't pay it lip service. If you do wish to resolve the complain, apologize. It can be in small print in the back of the paper under an advertisement for Windex, but you should say it somewhere.

Just as a point of comparison, examine how most publications handle factual errors. They are probably alerted to these errors by readers' letters, but they don't simply publish the letter. No, they print a correction in fine print in the back of the paper under an ad for Windex (or, if they're really professional, they publish corrections somewhere more visible, but we're not here to debate visibility).

So if you've offended someone, it's not a matter for debate. You can't argue with someone about whether or not something offends them; it might not offend you, but that doesn't really matter to them. If you feel the complaint is legitimate, be legit in return. If not, don't print the letter like it's an apology.