An Abuse of Editorial Policy?

Editors' Note: The Crimson does not usually respond to letters to the editor unless to correct facts or misrepresentations. This letter contains several charges and raises questions about the derivation of our staff policy that should be addressed.

The basic staff opinion of The Crimson is usually conceived by the editorial chairs, John A. Cloud '93 and Beth L. Pinsker '93, who generally assign specific staff of The Crimson then meets to discuss, debate, amend and then vote on editorials.

Those editorials approved by a majority of the editors become the staff opinions of the entire Crimson, not the opinions of the person who originally wrote them. In fact, staff editorials should best be seen as group efforts, since other editors contribute both ideas and writing. These meetings are held regularly at a standard time which is subject to change because of holidays or special events, and are open to all editors. The meeting to discuss The Crimson's council chair endorsement was held on Friday afternoon, following the previous night's Crimson-sponsored debate among the candidates.

As for dissents, all editors who disagree with the majority are allowed to voice their concerns. Dissents are edited for form and factual content only.

The proceedings of editorial meetings are strictly confidential in order to facilitate free discussion, and therefore we cannot comment on the specifics of the meeting. We can assure you that this editorial was handled in the same manner and was subject to the same scrutiny as all our staff editorials. We cannot and will not comment on rumors, and we do not believe that these allegations can be substantiated. Julian E. Barnes '93, President   John A. Cloud '93, Editorial Chair   Beth L. Pinsker '93, Editorial Chair