Horseplay
(Aug. 7, 2008) Editor:
When I picked up the current issue of the North Coast Journal yesterday and read the boxed article about the Arcata City Council voting to prohibit Arcata residents from seeing the Lipizzaner stallion show at Redwood Acres, I was incredulous. (“Pretty War Horses,” July 31). It seemed like it must be a joke, but there it was written in your newspaper with no accompanying byline saying this was satire or an op-ed piece.
Knowing some of the council members and their votes on other issues, as well as our current nationwide climate of infringement on citizen rights, I wanted to call and check for myself. Of course, the Arcata City Council office told me this article was a complete fabrication.
I then called your office and spoke to a gentleman who informed me that it was, of course, a joke, and that if they had put in the article that it was a joke it would have ruined the joke. He also said that everyone would know it was a joke. Pardon my inability to see the humor in this high-brow comedy, which I suppose was intended for the intelligentsia of Humboldt County, but I was under the impression that newspapers should always report facts unless they are clearly stated as opinion pieces, or otherwise in sections clearly labeled as not being news articles.
I personally do not see the humor in this piece and was disappointed that your paper would lower its journalistic standards with such a waste of newspaper space.
You can just assign this letter to some one who doesn’t “get it” but I really believe that this attempt at humor didn’t belong in this section of the current events without some sort of disclaimer. And before you jump to the conclusion that I’m just not savvy enough for this type of humor, I will let you know that I am a magna cum laude college graduate.
— Kathleen Essa, Eureka
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