Dear Editor,
Now that the primaries are over, there is the issue of the May 19 editorial.
Who wrote that? Other than the short bit of rehashed information taken from voter guide there was little else that might pass as an editorial writing.
The opening line “Every member of the editorial board is a writer, a reader, and a lover of libraries,” was simply a rhetorical statement that makes it pointless. Then, there were the irrelevant reasons for opposing Proposition 81, arranged “in no particular order,” before the writer moved onto the intended agenda – that old bugaboo, the accessibility of pornography.
A lesser informed reader might infer from the editorial that such allegations were an established fact.
After all, the integrity of a newspaper is measured by its adherence to the code of journalistic ethics, even in its editorials. But on the other hand, the astute reader might regard it as an unethical attempt to validate views better expressed in a personal opinion column or a letter to the editor.
The disputed section of the editorial states that “our librarians refused and continue to refuse to adopt a policy prohibiting access to pornography by minors on library Internet terminals.”
First of all, librarians don’t set Internet policy. Librarians don’t have the required authority over minors to monitor their Internet use. That is and has always been the sole “responsibility of parents, or guardians to determine what is appropriate for their own children.”
There was one semi-positive point – librarians were not accused of actually distributing pornography to minors. As for the allegation that there is not now nor has there ever been a Internet policy, this is just not true.
The fact is that this allegation refers to the Santa Clara County Library systems rejection of the K.I.D.S. recommendations that it adopt their Internet policy and its Internet Acceptable Use policy back in 1998, much of which was already library policy or was a clear violation of the library patrons rights under California law and U.S. Constitution.
Harold Williams, San Jose
