A letter appeared in last week’s Mercury that did what so many letters to the editor do: It addressed a local issue and criticized a local official, namely Richfield Springs’ school superintendent. But this letter was different. The writer put another person’s name on it. In other words, the letter was a fraud. In its attack on Superintendent Robert Baracco’s stewardship of the school system, the letter’s content itself was well within the bounds of propriety when it comes to discussing public issues or public officials. The Mercury, like almost every other newspaper in America, makes judgments every week on what to print and what to omit. In this case, however, we made an error and we apologize to Mr. Barraco, Wendy Miller, and any others who might have been hurt by the letter. Mr. Barraco was the target; Wendy Miller was a victim. The letter identified her as the writer, something she did not do. Her name was usurped and illegally used. The Mercury is offering a reward to anyone who provides evidence on the real letter writer’s identity so that we can take appropriate action, legal and otherwise. Our error was in not verifying the writer’s identity. Since resuming publication three years ago, we’ve received hundreds of letters without problems. But to guard against this type of fraud happening again, we must insist that all letter writers provide a contact phone number so we can verify authenticity. We also now require that the writer sign the letter. As we increase efforts to prevent fraud, we want to assure readers that The Mercury remains committed a robust public discussion of community issues. The content of the letter in question would not have prevented it from being published, but the fraud should have. It’s a shame that some people who want to discuss public issues can’t do it in an honest way. We’ll do our best to weed out those people. We apologize to Mr. Barraco, Ms. Miller and all our readers that, in this case, we didn’t do it sooner. Keep your strongly held opinions coming into the paper; only keep them honest in terms of the source as well as the content. We’ll welcome them, but with renewed vigilance.
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