Sometimes the Great Bend Tribune gets requests to run something on the Op Ed page. Usually, we tell people we don’t have an Op Ed page, but letters are welcome.
Op Ed is a bit of newspaper shorthand coined to describe the page opposite the editorial page. Op = Opposite, Ed = Editorial. Bigger newspapers that run two or more opinion pages per issue have Op Ed pages. We just have one page, “Ed.”
Except today. The page opposite this one is indeed a second opinion page, at least on the top half, filled with letters to the editor that would not fit on this page. That’s because this is the last day the Tribune will run letters to the editor that are related to next Tuesday’s election.
The reason for the cut-off is that we want our readers to participate in the public forum provided in these pages, and we want to treat everyone fairly. We let everyone know what the cut-off is for those wanting to have “the last word.”
There is another reason for not running letters of this nature after the Friday before a Tuesday election. Sometimes, in a heated political debate, one side or another will launch a zinger at the last moment. In November elections, particularly presidential elections, it’s called the “October surprise.” It is a last-minute announcement that is meant to be on people’s minds as they go to the polls.
Richard Nixon was credited with using an October surprise to get re-elected in 1972. He was being criticized for failing to get the United States out of Vietnam during his first term in office. On Oct. 26, 1972, less than two weeks before the election, Henry Kissinger appeared at a White House press conference and announced, “We believe that peace is at hand.” Nixon won by a landslide.
Locally, we remember at least one election letter that was intended to have the opposite effect. Some negative was alleged about a candidate – the kind of thing that deserved a response, or at least the candidate deserved the opportunity to respond.
So, we’re shutting off the free ink today. Come Wednesday, readers are welcome to speak out again on our “Ed” page. Until then, the best way to be heard on local politics would be to vote on Tuesday.