Today, you’ll read a lot of opinions in response to a letter to the editor that ran on Monday, but shouldn’t have. We agree with reader push-back on the letter that read like a hate-filled rant. It should have never been published.
But it was, and for that we apologize. We failed our community.
There isn’t a good reason for how it ran, but it wasn’t something we read, considered and now are doubting our decision.
This editor didn’t see it until it was too late, already in print. We get many letters to the editor, and they get filed in our system and if they are deemed not worth running, or suspiciously fake like that letter was, they are spiked out of the system as not to be retrieved. The letter was filed but not spiked out, which it should have been. It was simply missed until it was too late.
It was a bad, boneheaded error for which this editorial board takes responsibility. It was taken down from the online file. We’re sorry, Hawaii, and we will strive never to let our island down again.
Tom Hasslinger is the editor at West Hawaii Today. He can be reached at thasslinger@westhawaiitoday.com or 930-8600.