Letters to Editor
“Less” Robbins
From Issue: Volume XXI - Number 4
2/22/2013
Finally, Robbins is gone. That self-centered, egotistical, narcissistic, delusional, left wing whack job is gone. Vance Frederick, you are my hero! Robbins, you write like an angry public school third grade student at the bottom of his class. Speaking of class, sadly, you have none! Why resort to swearing and name calling when you are called out? Clearly you cuss because you are not intelligent enough to come up with better words.
You are an embarrassment and frankly, I think most of us realize that you did not resign from the Beachcomber, the Beachcomber resigned you. Maybe you can find another paper with lower standards where you can continue to spew your bile.
James Powell
Editor:
I am saddened that Les Robbins has resigned from your newspaper. I thought he brought an excellent point of view to your newspaper, was knowledgeable and factually grounded, and he was a good writer as well. I also happen to think he was right about a lot of things. It is sad that a couple of bully letter writers can intimidate and harass someone expressing his opinion to the extent that he would feel the need to resign. I read the whole exchange online between Robbins and Vance Fredericks, and in my reading of the exchange, Fredericks first crossed the line from civil dialogue into bullying. Robbins perhaps should not have taken the bait by responding, but I do not think he was the instigator of the ugly exchange.
I looked forward to reading the Beachcomber (and looking at its ads) every week mostly because of Robbins’ column. His voice will be dearly missed by me, and my interest in reading your paper has declined tremendously as a result.
I know others feel the same as me, but if we express ourselves then we can expect to be called all sorts of awful names by Mr. Upwich or Fredericks or whoever else has nothing better to do than publicly insult anyone who disagrees with them with conjecture and bias rather than facts.
Robbins’ departure will also make your paper a much more blatantly right-wing newspaper than it already is. I think this can only detract from your advertising revenue, as it will no longer clearly be a newspaper for the whole community, just a small but loud portion of it. It you want to refashion your paper as a sort of Tea Party-neo-libertarian publication, then that is certainly your right, but if not, consider finding a suitable voice from the other side of the aisle to compensate for the gaping void left by Robbins – a voice with deep knowledge and a useful perspective about local issues.
Name Withheld
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