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The Albert Lea Tribune’s new letter to the editor policy is pay-to-play for people wishing to express their views on candidates and ballot measures. As a justification, the Tribune stated that some people are paid by campaigns to write and submit letters, but it does not reference any specific examples.

Has this happened locally? I have not been paid or otherwise compensated to write anything political, and I don’t know anyone who has.

If there are any local examples, I would very much like to know about them. If there hasn’t been a verified case, then this claim is a cynical snub to all of us who live in the Tribune’s coverage area and are writing as citizens only to express our views, not to cash a check.

It’s a risk to state a potentially controversial opinion, and I appreciate all the people who share their thoughts about a candidate or ballot measure and have the courage to put their name on it, whether I agree with them or not.

I understand the Tribune has to make money, and money in the newspaper industry is drying up, but the new policy starts to turn a valuable community forum into a paid advertising section, and it leaves out voices based on ability to pay.

I would make a plea that everybody should subscribe to their local newspaper because of its important oversight role in local government and business. The idea that “money equals speech” is thrashing our democracy, and bending to it in this way does not bode well for the future of our local newspaper either.

Just my “two cents.”

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

Albert Lea