MEDIA WATCH
Are editorials necessary?
Greg Pearson

Belonging to the editorial staff of a daily newspaper is considered to be a plum assignment. Despite declining circulation nationwide and questions of whether the Internet will make daily papers relevant in the future, newspapers like the Richmond Times-Dispatch (RTD) still commit considerable staff and revenue to churning out opinion pieces daily.

But who cares? The perception these "experts" try to create is having the wisdom of Solomon, when in truth, we know little of their expertise or how they arrive at their opinions. In response to our questions, Todd Culbertson, editor of the editorial pages of the RTD, is mum on all subjects, except for saying, "We let our editorials speak for themselves." Hopefully, elected and appointed leaders of Chesterfield won't pick up a similar chant when the Chesterfield Observer asks them in the future to account for their votes. Funny how most in the news media like to ask questions but don't like to answer them.

We wanted to know about how the Richmond daily went about deciding to editorialize that Chesterfield should wait for a year to select replacements for vacancies brought about by the retirement of County Administrator Lane Ramsey and the resignation of Police Chief Carl Baker. Both are leaving in early August. How many months would the RTD leave its publisher and managing editor positions open?

That Feb. 28 editorial created numerous questions we'd like to ask the RTD. Like, what experts (if any) did the editorial department consult with before reaching the conclusion to wait until next year?

The editorial department didn't contact Ramsey regarding the selection of a new police chief. "I'm going to move forward with the selection process," Ramsey told us. "The police chief position is absolutely critical to fill as soon as possible. The charter has specific provisions to ensure that politics doesn't play a role." Does the RTD want politics to play a role?

The editorial argued that Chesterfield should wait to fill these positions until after a new Board of Supervisors is elected in November, suggesting that political considerations would dictate who the best candidates are. One has to wonder if the editorial staff assumes Chesterfield makes its decisions politically because the RTD does? In preparation for its future, the Richmond daily has fired, retired and encouraged resignations of staff members for sometime now in its current downsizing.

Because the RTD's editorial staff operates in secret, we don't know how its editorial views are determined. But if these experts pontificate one day on Chesterfield and the next on Iraq, we'd like a gander at their resumes to better understand how they became qualified in so many fields.

In more than 11 years of publishing, this newspaper hasn't done editorials - save one last summer when we urged all candidates for public office to debate their opponents. We're not political wannabes, and we acknowledge that those elected to political office and hired by professionals to manage Chesterfield County are better qualified to make those decisions. While we write about what they do, we're not qualified to tell them what to do. Is the editorial department of the Richmond Times-Dispatch?