Letters / Unhelpful request by Shetland News
I read a very, very insightful letter to Shetland News from your correspondent, David Spence from Yell (The biggest risk to most people’s health right now is social media; SN, 19 March 2019) – only to then read your own plea for people to report the distress they were encountering around COVID -19!
You are encouraging the very same circus of heightening people’s fears and only concentrating on information that incite those fears.
I would appeal to people in our community to have the common sense to not respond to these types of requests and feel you should rethink your approach.
Davie Sandison
Scalloway
Response from the editor:
Dear David – With all due respect but you are confusing two very different things here. We are a widely read local news service that fact–checks its output before it is published.
Part of local news reporting is not just to report the official line but also to speak to people affected to whatever the story is. That does not just apply to coronavirus but to everything we do, from Brexit to salmon farming.
We are most definitely not intending in participating in any ”circus” to “heighten people’s fears”; quite the opposite. In fact, over recent days we have received numerous messages congratulating us on our measured and fact based reporting of the current crisis.
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