Media need to demonstrate impartiality to regain trust

I see there is a national campaign to tell us that the news people are our friends. I think that shows what the problem really is: They don’t show us, they tell us.

I think that freedom of the press is a good idea because I have lived in places where that is not the policy. Freedom of the press carries with it a corresponding responsibility to be even and accurate, and this where many people like me have concern.

It is OK to express opinions on the editorial page, but not on the news. Look at the broadcast networks, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times. the Chicago Tribune: It is difficult to see where the opinion lets off and the news begins. They all have a definite slant, and the vitriol with which they paint other opinions is disgusting.

The media need to show us that they have the strength to shoulder the responsibility as well as the wisdom to exercise the freedom given to them in the First Amendment.

I grew up with Walter Cronkite delivering the days affairs. Walter told us what, and Eric Sevareid told us why in a section clearly separate from the news. Some will say newspapers do that by having editorial pages, but opinion seems to color the news articles. Newspaper publishers have an obligation to stem this practice so people once again rely on newspapers and TV news for what is happening in the world.

It is sad that except for some local media and other outlets such as the BBC, I have little trust in what is delivered as news. Don’t tell me that you are not my enemy. Give me back news that I can trust.

Solar cap hurts non-solar customers

The Legislature has been adjourned just two months, and its failure to lift the solar cap is already having a tangible impact on our state. Duke Energy has reached the cap, and it’s only a matter of time before the other utilities follow suit.

The fact that the cap was reached so quickly surely is telling as to how high the demand for solar is.

In Duke’s territory, customers who want to install solar can no longer sell their energy to the utility for the price they purchase it. Citizens employed by the solar companies are facing layoffs. And it will happen here in Columbia next.

I don’t have solar installed on my rooftop, but customers who do are helping all of us. The more solar there is, the less utilities have to run their power plants, and that means they don’t have to build as many.

Lift the cap. Lower our bills.

This is the time for teachers to walk out

Thank you for printing Frank E. Morgan’s column about the low pay and the problems public school educators have to put up with.

Speaking of money, this would be a good year for teachers to flex their collective muscle and walk out until they get a real pay raise. I mean, who’s going to fire them in the midst of this shortage?

This may be the last best chance for teachers to use their power to get what they need.

May God bless our public school educators. You guys rock!

Why are Chinese investments so great?

The Aug. 9 featured articles about an Arkansas

Two interesting articles appeared on the same page in The State on Aug. 9: “Arkansas town highlights state-level trade concerns,” and “More than 400 new jobs up for grabs in Columbia, Richland County.”

The common denominator is that they both involve Chinese-owned companies building in so-called red states. Are there no U.S.-owned companies that can do what these Chinese-owned companies do?

Where is the “Make American Great Again” outrage and the clamoring for everyone to “buy American” from American-owned companies? Why do we need to have the Chinese come to town?

Do American entrepreneurs no longer have the wherewithal to do this type of work?

While some Americans may be employed by these companies, the profits go overseas.

I guess that since the Trump family/administration can continue to make China the go-to location for its low-cost business purchases, we need to bring those Chinese companies into the United States as well.

The Republican silence over not having American companies developing these facilities and manufacturing these items is deafening.

Sad. Pathetic. Liars.

The State publishes a cross section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.