Find another voice
I have been reading with interest the various responses to my request to exorcise Michelle Maklin’s vitriol from our community newspaper after her vicious attack on teenage survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre. (“Not ‘just having fun,’ ” PDN, April 5).
Several letter writers have supported this removal of her reprehensible rhetoric.
And several others have felt a First Amendment right to free speech makes her worthy of polluting our public forum.
The First Amendment does, indeed, include the right to free speech.
It also includes freedom of the press.
While Ms. Maklin can trash talk as she wishes, she can’t demand that venues provide her a platform.
Which brings us to the Peninsula Daily News.
Is it an appropriate place for her vitriolic rants?
There are alternatives for those in need.
Should you require a daily dose of hateful outrage, Ms. Malkin is readily accessible on the internet along with many others of her ilk.
I believe that when she pilloried the young MSDHS survivors who spoke out, she crossed a moral red line and forfeited the privilege of placement in our family newspaper.
I am again asking the PDN to find a different voice for the right, conservatives, independents … a thoughtful voice.
Why continue stoking fear, outrage and anger when reasonable options exist?
And to the letter writer (“Useful citizens vote,” PDN, April 26) who felt that comments by Ms. Malkin including those from her above-referenced column represent “a breath of fresh air:” I would identify that aroma as more of a stench.
Susan Molin,
Sequim