Editor,
I received your paper the other day and was intrigued that you were endorsing a school board candidate. Your newspaper is local, which I love, but I was surprised to see an endorsement for a position like that.
It took some squinting, and my eyes are good, to then see a “Paid for by Spanenberg for School Board.” So that clarified things. When an advertisement is placed on the front page of your paper, with the same color background as the other type, a reader can easily assume you support this person (which you may or may not).
I will not be voting for this candidate, which is why I likely noticed the fine print. There are a lot of people in this community, myself included, that respect your paper and basis for opinions, even if I don’t always agree. Not all of us can become as informed on every local issue as we may want to. In those cases we may defer to a local paper like yours. I’m afraid many people may take that advertisement as an actual endorsement and vote accordingly.
Kudos to Ms. Spanenberg for publishing an advertisement that comes across as an endorsement. I only wish her communication with the community was as strong as her marketing skills. And I wish Current wouldn’t allow that.
Current, please consider making it clear that advertisements like this are truly advertisements and nothing more. Our family advertises in your paper as well. There is no doubt that it is an advertisement, nothing more. We certainly wouldn’t consider disguising an advertisement as an endorsement, intended or not.
Jay Danforth, Carmel
