Ray Keener: Editorial columnists

I agree in principle with the Camera’s decision to include more local editorial columnists over the past couple years. Last Sunday, columns by Stu Stuller regarding academic freedom at CU and Bill de la Cruz on balance and partisanship were great examples of unique local insights into local issues.

On the other hand… you continue to print the typings of Mike Ellis.
He first caught my attention with his inflammatory and ignorant-of-the- law column about cycling. Now we see that he doesn’t understand the difference between the results of statewide vote tallies and self- selecting Internet polls.

Then we get Anne Butterfield writing several hundred words in defense of more funding for NREL, then find at the end of her column that she’s “married to the Chief Engineer of NREL’s wind center.” I can’t imagine that you would let one of your reporters cover a story where they had this level of personal interest.

With the advent of “citizen journalism” (an oxymoron if there ever was one), I believe that the Camera has an even stronger responsibility to uphold standards of journalistic integrity. Otherwise, there’s no distinction between reporting and typing.

Ray Keener
Boulder