“A man’s opinions are generally of much more value than his arguments,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes.

As long as those opinions are tied up with rights and responsibilities.

I was reminded of this during a recent discussion with journalism students at Colorado State University in Pueblo. The talk covered the fallout following the use of the “F-bomb” in the school newspaper at the university’s main campus in Fort Collins.

Editor J. David McSwane used the epithet in a Rocky Mountain Collegian editorial directed at President George W. Bush. McSwane was subsequently admonished for his actions.

One student asked visiting professional journalists from the Colorado Press Association if they would consider hiring McSwane after the incident.

“It depends,” was the general consensus.

New directions

Lost within the hyperventilating and bloviating that followed the editorial is a more important discussion: What is the purpose of the modern editorial or opinion page?

“Will we all have to become adept at video packaging so that our arguments can be illustrated with moving pictures?” asks syndicated columnist Robyn Blumner.

“Some of my colleagues who run editorial pages have had their titles changed from editorial page editor to community conversation editor. The idea is that their primary job is not to formulate thoughtful positions on public policy, but to moderate discussion. The editorial is almost an afterthought to the conversation it is expected to generate about a particular topic,” she said.

She is of the opinion that all reader comment (online or in print) should meet the same criteria — meaning no one should be allowed to remain anonymous and that obvious untruths are barred from publication.

I agree, in general, though once again, it depends.

 We should pay attention to and help develop the community conversation.

Sometimes that means more open forums than we are used to in the letters to the editor columns, and less rigorous fact-checking than we can accomplish with our existing standard for letters.

The answer may be setting aside well-labeled areas complete with warnings, disclaimers and instruction on how reliable (or unreliable) the information contained within might be.

Keep areas separate

Once these areas are established, the next step is to vigorously protect our pristine positions such as the opinion page, the editorial page and those columns dedicated to legitimate public discourse ­— and educate readers on the difference.

Leon Nelson Flint, a professor of journalism at the University of Kansas in the 1920s, said the editorial column affords the only legitimate means by which a newspaper may attempt to exercise leadership.

“Through this means of expression (a paper) can defend the weak and the new idea, or fight for unorganized classes in society, or act as attorney for the people who pay it 10 cents a week.”

Nearly 100 years ago an editorial in The Detroit News put it this way: “It is doubtless true that some editorial pages have ceased to be an influence, but that is because they ought to cease. Influence is based on confidence, and confidence is built on daily, yearly loyalty to the truth, a tested vision which foresees right directions, and an uncompromising devotion to the principles of righteousness and justice no matter how positively unpopular for the time being these may be.”

Horace White, when editor of the New York Evening Post, agreed on the importance of the editorial.

“A newspaper which merely inked over a certain amount of white paper each day may be a good collector of news, it might be successful as a business venture; but it could leave no mark upon its time, and could have no history.”

We need to decide today our legacy. Will editorials continue to be important and letters to the editor relevant to readers 100 years from now? Or will the practice slip off into a different form that none of us will recognize. More importantly, will it matter?

Once again, I’m afraid the answer is, “It depends.”

Rob Carrigan is in the sales and business development group of weekly newspaper publisher Colorado Publishing Co., a Dolan Media Co. unit based in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at rob.carrigan@csmng.com.