David Troisi fancies himself to have been the “Editor” of the Sun-Gazette’s Letters to the Editor section. In a recent column, he spelled out his cavalier views about reviewing and publishing those letters. While he mentioned nothing about his own editorializing, they have also reflected the same disdain for facts that he admits in his aforementioned commentary.

Mr. Troisi proudly boasts, “This newspaper’s Letters to the Editor feature is legitimately the forerunner to tweeting. Readers write opinions, usually emotionally with a good share of hyperbole and a generous stretching of fact that blurs the lines of accuracy … Never once did I reference the end of a letter with a place where the facts could be checked.” He also writes: “If letter writers agree with each other, fine. If they want to verbally tear each other’s eyes out, fine.” Reading that, I find it curiously inconsistent that he had little hesitation when it came to deleting content he particularly didn’t like.

So, I presume, if a physician submits a letter advising that the best way to protect oneself against COVID-19 is never to wear a mask, neither socially distance nor wash your hands, and not to worry about joining large indoor crowds meeting in poorly ventilated rooms for long periods without following recommended precautions, the Sun-Gazette under Troisi would print it. If concerned individuals submitted letters refuting such bogus medical inaccuracies, would they be published? Maybe, or maybe not.

Mr. Troisi says, “The problem is, Twitter, Facebook and the whole Internet have no editor.” The problem with the Sun-Gazette under Troisi was, that by acting like the Twitter of his time, the Gazette didn’t have one, either. Troisi didn’t edit Letters to the Editor; he was proofreading, and copying/pasting and, as many a letter writer will posit, not doing a great job at that. Should the “Letters” page be no more than a community bulletin where anyone can post anything, leaving the public to ferret out truth from fiction? Absurd! And if his standard for publication in hard copy was “printability,” he abandoned that standard totally in the comment section on the Internet.

I’ll leave it to others to comment further on Troisi’s handling of letters. My more serious concern is that he consistently failed to edit even his own editorials for accuracy. I often wrote to him privately, detailing specific factual errors. I referred him to respected, often peer-reviewed sources contradicting his views. I asked for feedback on the items I questioned. Rarely did he ever acknowledge my emails and never once corrected his errors. Neither did he explain why his version was true. He was as careless about factual accuracy in his own writings as he was about off-the-wall screeds.

In his role at the Sun-Gazette, Troisi effectively agreed with a famous philosopher who said, “There are no facts, only interpretations.” Troisi’s editorial work confirms his contention that nothing in the world exists or has meaning, independent of what we wish to impose on it. According to him, every interpretation, however contradictory, is of equal value. While we all do have the right to expound our views, however untrue, isn’t it a newspaper’s responsibility to also share factual references when they widely publish blatantly untruthful information, however false and even dangerous?

In his belief that truth is whatever one thinks is true, Troisi resolved not to be an editor; a grievous decision, indeed.

TIM MANNELLO

Williamsport

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