To the editor:

On page 6B of your Nov. 13 edition, the statement “What The Journal-World stands for” includes the bullet-point “No mixing of editorial opinion with reporting of the news.”

Does that pledge extend to sensational headlines as well? I refer to the “Hereford House on brink of closing/smoking ban blamed” headline that screamed at me from the newspaper vending machine that day. With a banner like that, one doesn’t need to actually read the article to assume they know where your publication stands on this issue.

As I see it, it’s a sad situation when a handful of business owners find themselves unable to accept the realities of changing economic conditions and the ever-changing palette of the buying public. It appears to me they are being short-sighted when they appear to be placing their personal economic agendas in higher regard than the public health benefits that a no-smoking ordinance provides.

I find it disheartening that local media outlets seem to have given these entrepreneurs carte blanche to publicly blame their lack of success on one law, as opposed to them accepting the full responsibility of running their own businesses. I suppose it’s just another example of our “blameless society” at work.

Darrell Lea,

Lawrence