Editorial Council adopts election season and online commenting policies for Osage News

The Osage News Editorial Council has adopted new policies concerning the remainder of the election season starting with next month’s newspaper and online reader comments posted to the Osage News Web site.

For the remainder of this election season and starting with the October edition of the newspaper, columnists who have previously written for the Osage News may continue to write their columns (with word limits), but cannot use the space to directly campaign for office. This rule will be strictly enforced and columnists will be asked to either rewrite their column or pay for the space as an advertisement. In the event of the latter, the space will be clearly labeled as an advertisement.

For the remainder of the campaign season, the Osage News will provide a monthly space in the newspaper edition for each declared candidate for office to write no more than 200 words campaigning for office. This includes unelected Osages and official incumbents.

The Osage News will provide an additional space on its Web site for each candidate. That space will be limited to 500 words per month.

All candidates may buy an unlimited amount of space in the Osage News online and newspaper editions at the Osage News standard advertising rates.

The three-person Editorial Council is adopting these policies in order to give each candidate a fair and equal space each month to communicate with the Osage people. Council members Tara Manthey, Teresa Trumbly Lamsam and Denny McAuliffe agreed on these policies during a Sept. 11 teleconference.

Also during the meeting, the Editorial Council approved changes to the commenting system on the Osage News Web site.

The new commenting system allows readers to register with their first and last names and a valid e-mail address. Only registered users will be able to post comments to stories.

The comments will be immediately posted, but will be frequently reviewed by Osage News staff to see that they comply with the standing comment policy which reads:

“You are solely responsible legally for the content of your Submissions. However, while the Osage News does not and cannot review every Submission and is not responsible for the content of these messages, The Osage News reserves the right to delete, move, or edit Submissions that it, in its sole discretion, deems abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright or trademark laws, or otherwise unacceptable.”

Location