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The Gazette laments the glut of e-mails back and forth on issues related to waste-to-energy ("E-mail is the wrong venue for this debate," Jan. 29), and complains that all the who-struck-John exchanges only shackle us to our computers.

Excuse me, but if the news media did not create this monster, it certainly has participated in the care and feeding of it.

The point of your editorial is well-taken. In fact, I agree, essentially, that e-mails, blogs, partisan Web sites and campaign speeches are not the best way to discuss issues as important as the siting and construction of a waste-to-energy facility.

I would also point out that the same argument applies to several other issues that those of us who were elected to develop and administer policy in Carroll County have had on our plates for many months.

Upgrades to the county airport, siting and building reservoirs, developing a new master plan, and attempts to create an independent and non-political police force come to mind.

Each of those issues is still up in the air.

At least part of the reason for a lack of progress is because (1) the news media did a poor job of reporting the early stages of preparation and public information, then allowed opponents to accuse the government of keeping information secret or of being self-serving in its release of information; and (2) the barrage of letters to the editors containing factual and contextual errors — even outright lies — were and continue to be published without any apparent sense of responsibility for fairness and/or accuracy.

I know how some news people used to think, and perhaps they still do. Journalists hate to publish anything "politicians" say, but will allow private citizens any verbal excess in the name of freedom of speech. I thought it was a double standard when I was a working journalist, and I do now, as a county commissioner.

In an apparent effort to be more like the Internet, rather than take on its weakness (one of which is that facts are not vetted), the print media has decided to try to match it as a populist tool.

That means anyone can play, even if they never attend practice. Anyone can win, no matter their skills, so long as they can capture for a moment in time the emotions of the populace.

Blogs, lax standards for letters to the editor, call-ins and those instant polls all feed the worst consequences of public discourse on complex and important issues.

The Gazette and other newspapers I follow that cover issues of which I have some knowledge are guilty of lowering the standard of public debate.

Don't come to us now and point fingers and tear your hair and blame those who take advantage — or have become ensnared in — something you could have overcome just by being what newspapers are supposed to be: the best source of information.

I noted at a recent roundtable meeting (televised for live and rebroadcast) that I never thought I would see the day when the best place for factual information is a local government's Web site, but in Carroll County it has come to that.

As a former reporter, columnist and editor of newspapers, I am saddened by the current state of affairs.

Dean Minnich, Westminster

The writer is vice president of the Carroll Board of County Commissioners.