Editor’s Note: As part of the continued evolution of our business and due to changing reader habits, McClatchy will no longer publish daily opinion cartoons, including on the Herald-Leader’s Opinion page. The Herald-Leader has been proud to publish the work of Pulitzer Prize winner Joel Pett, who has contributed timely, thought-provoking, accountability-focused work to these pages for decades. Local opinion journalism remains core to McClatchy’s mission, and we are committed to elevating strong voices who bring deeply reported, urgent local opinion journalism to our readers.
Above was The Lexington Herald-Leader preface to a selection of reader reactions to the firing of Joel Pett.
Below are excerpts from the letters to the editor.
I really hate to see Joel Pett be released!
On the same day I received my credit card statement showing the monthly subscription price had taken a whopping 50 percent increase I find that Joel Pett has been fired. The value of my subscription has just decreased as a result.
… this decision is moronic.
This was not in service to local journalism.
Apparently, winning a Pulitzer Prize means nothing to your company.
I strongly object to the firing of Joel Pett.
Is the Herald-Leader turning into a paper with no “guts”? Surely, his firing does not have to do with his work as he exhibits truths that, while they might not be popular in Kentucky, are truths just the same.
Are you daft?
Say it ain’t so, McClatchy!
feature caricature © Joel Pett
While I strongly support local journalism, McClatchy’s decision does not appear to be local. In that case we really don’t have local journalism. It seems to me that McClatchy is the problem on this issue and any number of other issues. I don’t want to end my subscription but the reasons to do so are mounting.
The McClatchy paper in the town where I live, the Columbia Daily Tribune, is offering a subscription deal of $! for the rest of the year. I’ve decided a subscription is not worth the cost.