Reporter Steve Collins of the Lewiston Sun Journal wrote a recent article in this newspaper that scolded Rep. Bruce Poliquin for his latest TV ad (“Golden and Poliquin exchange fire over political ads,” Aug. 30). The ad in question raised legitimate concerns about Poliquin’s opponent, Jared Golden. It also focused attention on Golden’s tattoos. Collins’ article summarizes the ad and implies that it is nasty. Surely, this article must be an opinion piece? Nope, the newspaper thinks this is worthy of the front page. Ridiculous.

It is ironic that the article portrays Poliquin as mean and Golden as a saint, because Golden recently aired a TV ad that referred to throwing Poliquin overboard into the ocean. The author of the article is fine with that; he nonchalantly mentions it as if Golden isn’t guilty of also airing negative campaign ads.

I decided to look up Steve Collins. I was not the least bit surprised to find that his Twitter feed is filled with pro-leftist posts, from blaming mass-shootings on the NRA to calls for Trump to be impeached to re-tweeting diatribes that are anti-Poliquin. In some of his tweets, Collins declares the need for a free press, only to later tweet that provocateur Alex Jones should be banned from having a platform. Shouldn’t “we the people” be the ones to decide what is fake news and what isn’t? We shouldn’t need hypocrites like Collins to inject their opinions into their reporting.

I’m fine with opinions. I’m fine with negative political ads. They’re to be expected; it’s nothing new or newsworthy.

What I’m not fine with is the ever-blurring line between fact-based journalism and opinion. I don’t want to read opinion on the front page, whether it’s right leaning or left leaning. I just want to read the facts, cold and hard, and without biased commentary.

Ryan Fairfield

Rome


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