Dear Editor,

As children many of us were taught that telling the truth was all-important to our relationship with our parents. our siblings, others in our lives and most of all to God. Something was “true” or “not true” with no gray line. There was no such thing as “spin,” as it is practiced so often in 2012.

We grew up with the understanding that we could believe what we read in our newspapers because they were published with the cardinal principles of truth and accuracy. Later, when we could not trust some of our news sources the word got and we were not quite as trusting about them after that.

What happened along the way? Could it be that we as consumers — readers, radio listeners. television viewers — started preferring the message we wanted to receive rather than the sometimes unpleasant truth?

If we are completely truthful, we might put some of the blame for what has happened on ourselves. The change was gradual. We have taken the easy way out. We did not demand the truth. Sometimes we just canceled our subscriptions, changes programs or channels. Now we really need to react. We still might be in denial about our own part in what has happened with the mainstream media. Are they just giving us what the majority of people want? Controversy does have its appeal!

If we want to change the unacceptable actions of the mainstream media today we can send them a message. We will not continue to accept their open bias that aborts the truth. We are ready and thirsty for truth. No longer will we settle for “spin.”

We know up front, that if this happens, we may not be told what we want to know, but the truth is what we must have if conditions are to improve in this land we love. All voters must be able to make the best and educated choices between candidates running for office. Time is short, but change is necessary.

We can be thankful we live in LaGrange, Georgia where we have a daily hometown newspaper whose staffers practice the “Statement of Principles” — the highest standards of the Fourth Estate — adopted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1975.

This means that you make every effort to assure that the news content of the LaGrange Daily News is accurate to the best of your knowledge and that opposing views are presented fairly. Articles that contain opinion or personal interpretation are clearly identified as “Editorial” or as personal columns. We are also grateful that you provide space for Letters to the Editor so that we can “sound off” at times.

Thanks for your efforts to bring us the truth. We need more of it.

Julia Traylor Dyar

Broad Street