Editor:
As you know, local resident and active community volunteer Gene Felder purchases a weekly advertisement space in your newspaper, in which he regularly communicates his (right-slanted) political views.
In this past week’s paper, Mr. Felder published a two-sentence excerpt from a speech President Obama delivered recently. By editing the full quote cleverly, Mr. Felder altered the president’s words into a completely different message – and I am with this letter calling Mr. Felder out on his deceit.
To correct the record created in your pages, here is a larger quotation of the president’s speech. I emphasize with italics the two cherry-picked sentences Mr. Felder excerpted. It is clear to any objective person that by omitting the context surrounding the two sentences, Mr. Felder put forth an entirely false and misleading interpretation of the president’s thoughts.
“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”
I realize that your policy on letters does not allow attacks on individuals, but I hope you will agree that by publishing his political views regularly for all to read Mr. Felder invites reasonable criticism, particularly when he lies and misleads those who bother to read his weekly clap-trap.
James Dorf, Laguna Beach
