Most of the letters castigated the newspaper and were based on an Internet posting that attributed negative comments about ghost hunting to the newspaper instead of to the people who made the comments. We learned something here. We learned that the Internet can be a wonderful source of irate and nutty letters to the editor. Those are the kind we like, of course, because those are the letters you readers like. While a good discussion of a crucial social issue is helpful and appreciated, a letter castigating the editor, his lineage and the newspaper as a whole makes for more entertaining reading.
Entertainment is where most newspapers fall short.
Our business is news, but it is nice if we have something each week for people to chuckle over. It appears that the Internet is the answer. If local people don't care enough about an issue to write, someone out in cyberspace will be angry enough to dash off an electronic letter. To do this though, something in the paper must offend a local reader enough that he or she posts either the original story or a totally biased report of it on a web site. That is easier to do than we would have imagined.