Decent Letters-to-the-Editor pages?

March 28, 2007 7:12 PM

Any recommendations for decent Letters-to-the-Editor pages?

Before MetaFilter was invented, the best way I knew of to get my daily fix of what the more intelligent or humourous members of the general public thought about stuff was by reading the Letters to the Editor page of any quality newspaper.

The Times' letters page is probably the venerable grandfather of all, but for parochial & cost reasons I would normally stick to the Herald, if anybody needs any guidance to the kind of thing I am looking for.

My question is this: can anybody point me towards similar sites from American newspapers? Last time I checked the only two I know of that are worth reading (NYT & WaPo), the letters pages seemed very meagre indeed, and quite undemocratic: it seemed that you already had to be a senator, ambassador, hospital director etc to be chosen as worthy for publication.

If anybody knows of any particularly insightful, witty & well-edited letters pages from elsewhere in the world, I would also like to hear your recommendations.

posted by UbuRoivas to media & arts (9 comments total)

Do you know aboutThe Huffington Post? Though much of the content can be US-centric and left-leaning, it has quite a roster of contributors.
posted by zachxman at 7:24 PM on March 28, 2007

I stumbled across the San Francisco Chronicle's letters-to-the-editor section awhile back while doing some research, and I keep going back to it because it's usually filled with a good mix of serious and frivolous. They also have an Open Forum page.
posted by amyms at 7:28 PM on March 28, 2007

While much of The Economist's site is premium content; its online letters page (The In-Box) is free to view. You can also bypass the premium option and register to add comments, if you choose.
posted by rob511 at 7:37 PM on March 28, 2007

The LRB's has its moments; best when an academic row is brewing.
posted by Abiezer at 8:02 PM on March 28, 2007

Oops, missed that it was supposed to American. Apologies.
posted by Abiezer at 8:03 PM on March 28, 2007

no, no, no!

i primarily wanted to find American sources, but also anything good from elsewhere...London Review of Books is one I hadn't even considered...thanks, Abiezer!
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:20 PM on March 28, 2007

The New Yorker has some good ones, as does the New York Review of Books.
posted by HotPatatta at 11:20 PM on March 28, 2007

Of the American newspapers I've read on a regular basis at various times over the past few years, (Times, NY Post, NY Sun, various locals, Wall Street Journal, USA Today) the Wall Street Journal's letters section has always seemed the most interesting to me with a good mix of writers (e.g. not all or not no experts/news participants/company spokesmen). Of course the letters tend towards economic and business topics....

Also, in the new redesign it's no longer on the op-ed page where it used to be, but IIRC, in the second section.
posted by Jahaza at 3:02 AM on March 29, 2007

I love reading the letters to the editor in Stars & Stripes. The topics range from the trivial (license plates in Germany) to the profound (religious freedom) with lots of politics thrown in.

Almost without fail, every month or so someone will send in a letter that strikes a nerve (e.g., prayer in school, gays in the military, pay and benefits, etc.), this is usually followed by two or three rounds of back and forth debate, some thoughtful, some not so much. No matter when I look, there's always something witty, always something stupid, and always something good.
posted by i love cheese at 4:53 PM on March 29, 2007