The Flume staff and contributors to our Political Perspectives have been working diligently to overhaul and improve that section of the paper. As part of those efforts, a new format has been adopted and will be implemented in the March 17 issue of The Flume.
This will run in four-week cycles. In Week One of each cycle, contributors will submit perspectives with 500-word limits. Those perspectives are much like those seen previously in The Flume, and topics are still left entirely to the contributors. In addition to having stricter word limits, however, the perspectives are also required to have county or state relevance, unlike in the past.
In Week Two, it will be the readers’ turn to weigh in on the perspectives from Week One, and a topic will be recommended for contributors for Week Three. Those perspectives will be limited in scope to the given topic. The contributors’ perspectives will still be separated into three categories: Republican, Democratic and Independent.
And in Week Four, the readers are invited to comment on the Week Three perspectives.
The hope is that this new format will produce a more organized platform and a more targeted, positive and informative political dialogue for readers to enjoy on a weekly basis.
The new format also emphasizes a requirement to have a local tie-in. National political issues can still be discussed, provided that they relate in some way to issues pertaining to the state of Colorado or Park County specifically.
Both letters from readers and contributors’ submissions will be held to new standards. Perspectives and letters will be edited closely for content, especially content pertaining to topics in the following list. The idea, of course, is to keep the perspectives and letters focused, respectful and informative, while still providing a forum where contributors and readers can freely express their thoughts and opinions - whatever they might be.
Issues and pitfalls for contributors and letter-writers to avoid include:
• Factual misrepresentation using misleading information or language, or omitting relevant information in order to bolster one’s argument
• Statements of any kind that are not, or could not be, reasonably supported by facts
• Statements that target individuals in a demeaning manner, such as name-calling
• Threatening statements of any kind
• Statements that have the capacity to endanger the public
• Narratives that stray too far from the assigned topic
Selected topics will be pertinent to Park County, and perspectives and letters should primarily be written with local or statewide angles in mind. Since The Flume and its content has been dedicated to the coverage of Park County and matters of local interest for the last 144 years, it stands to reason that political perspectives should share more of those same “local” qualities.
All political perspectives will be limited to 500 words or less, with no exceptions.
Contributors for Democratic and Republican Perspectives will still be determined by the county chairs of each organization.
Candidates and sitting elected officials are not eligible to serve as contributors.
Does an invocation [prayer] at governmental meetings represent a violation of the ideal of separation of church and state? Who should make such decisions, and upon what basis?
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.