In the Friday, Sept. 26 paper, Ed Thomas wrote to complain about the "Other Views" columns by Pat Murphy. In addition to accusing Murphy of being a bully Thomas further refers to Murphy's writings as "dishonorable," "distorts," "shameful," "cheap lies," "often venal," etc. Thomas then accuses the Mountain Express of being politically biased for publishing Murphy's columns.
In the next edition of the paper, Martin Erdheim gave kudos to Thomas' letter. Erdheim then accuses the Mountain Express of agreeing with Murphy's views because the Mountain Express has "concluded that Murphy's views and style resonate with the local community."
Then in the next edition Mike Burke chimes in and states, "If readers can be made to put up with Murphy ad nauseam at least let some other points of view slip in at times." Perhaps Burke and the others have not noticed the weekly column of Mr. Reinhard.
From all three of their letters it is easy to conclude that they are hypocrites at best and perhaps even worse.
Lots could be said here about their reference to Murphy's age, etc. but I will spare the readers of that at this time. To my knowledge, I have never met Mr. Murphy and it is not my place to either agree or disagree with his writings here. I do, however, support Murphy's freedom to write his opinion as he pleases. I further support the Mountain Express' right to publish them if it wishes. Am I safe to assume that these three complainers are trying to eliminate freedom of speech and of the press?
If Thomas, Erdheim and Burke find the Mountain Express unacceptable they can easily find papers supporting their own political bias. Then they can read only that which they agree with and not look at both sides of issues, as they seem to prefer not to do.
Don Lauer
Sun Valley
