Below are screenshots of a letter to the editor by Roy Searles that was originally sent to the Free Lance Star. The Free Lance Star choose not to publish the editorial. However, we will post it along with the Free Lance Star response. See the screenshots below. Our rebuttal to the Free Lance Star response is as follows

“We are committed to publishing pieces from a wide variety of viewpoints, and we especially value those letters from people who disagree with the way our paper reports on and opines about local issues.”

The majority of editorials negatively hammer the conservative four on the school board. We are still looking for evidence of any editorial that is in favor of any of the conservatives.

“The Free Lance-Star has indeed reported on Cole’s Facebook posts”

We do not see any articles that print the entirety of Cole’s post with full context and full analysis. In order to properly report something, you have to show the evidence and cite specific examples. What the Free Lance star has done is water down the significance of the Cole post, the Lieberman posts, etc by providing overgeneralized statements without specific quotes.

“A prize is not a gift.”

Colloquially, the Free Lance Star is correct. However, if you look at the definition of a “gift” under the law, the Free Lance Star is incorrect. The law defines a gift as anything of value. Within the scope of that definition, a prize is a gift. We covered this extensively in an earlier Spotsy Wire article. More importantly, the Free Lance Star does not show they have performed any research in looking at the law when they make the claim a prize is a gift.