More words. More letters. No more Ann Coulter.

Since my arrival here nine weeks ago, we've been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work aimed at making the Arizona Daily Star a better newspaper.

Today, we unveil some visible changes to your Opinion pages. More changes will come here and throughout the paper over the coming weeks and months.

First, the highlights of changes to the Opinion pages. Then a little about the process we're using to arrive at our plans.

When I first wrote to you as I assumed my duties here, I invited your comments about the paper.

Of an estimated 300 e-mails and letters, I'd guess one third or so have dealt with some aspect of the Opinion pages and a recent redesign.

It's true enough that for some readers, the only way to win their hearts would be to reverse the longstanding editorial position of the newspaper on political and social issues.

But readers of all political persuasions said a redesign launched earlier this year on the Opinion pages had simply gone too far in emphasis on design. While strong visuals, including cartoons, can help pull readers into the pages, people ultimately turn to these pages for the commentary - ours, that of our local and syndicated columnists and that of other readers.

Beginning today, we're shifting the balance back toward more words. We'll still have photos and cartoons, but they will consistently run smaller. No more full-body photos of the letter-writer of the week or of people who contribute to our weekly highlights from local blogs.

The cartoons of David Fitzsimmons and others will run smaller - more similar to their size prior to the redesign. This will free up room for our two daily syndicated columnists, adding about 100 words to the average length of each column.

Fitz's Sunday "Tucson Boulevard" cartoon strip will move to Page 2 of the section each week, replacing his regular cartoon spot there. That will free up room for another columnist on the cover most Sundays. Sometimes, I'll have a column in this spot, but we're considering a variety of local and syndicated options for most weeks.

The design changes on the page opposite our editorial will mean more room for your letters. This was probably the No. 1 request of people who wrote to me. We've been publishing additional letters online, but now we'll get more of them into print, too.

Finally, we've decided that syndicated columnist Ann Coulter has worn out her welcome. Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives.

Taking her place on Saturdays will be Tony Snow, host of "The Tony Snow Show," syndicated nationally on Fox News Radio, and "Weekend Live with Tony Snow" on Fox News Channel. He has worked at a number of daily newspapers and is a former speechwriter for former President George H.W. Bush.

We're also making a lineup change to the staffing of our Opinion pages. With the return of writer Sam Negri following a lengthy medical leave, Sarah Garrecht Gassen will resume her duties as a reporter on our Metro desk. Sarah will continue to coordinate Young Voices, the Friday roundup of opinion by local teens and young adults.

These changes are part of an overall effort to better serve our readers and improve our journalism.

We need to understand and satisfy a broad audience. Through a combination of market research and regular contact, we come to know what readers want.

We need a staff of reporters, photographers, artists, copy editors and others to gather and produce the content that meets the needs of those readers. Like any group of professionals, they do their best when they are engaged and excited about the direction of the organization. I've spent most of my time these past few weeks listening to them and getting them involved in building our future.

My role, and that of other top editors, is to serve as a catalyst to bring those readers and journalists together, to provide leadership and an overall vision.

As we make further changes, we'll keep you posted. Sometimes, I will write to explain our efforts. Other times, Reader Advocate Debbie Kornmiller will provide a guide to the remodeling or new features.

At all times, we welcome your feedback. You can write to me at the address below (or you'll find me listed every day on Page A2 of the paper). You'll also find Debbie's contact information there each day or with her regular Sunday column (on page H3 today).

David Stoeffler is publisher and editor of the Star. Contact him at dstoeffler@azstarnet.com or at P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726.

Modernman,
I understand what you mean (even though Ronald Reagan did get his barbs into his opponents, he was such a darn nice guy that they just couldn't hate him...:)

As for Ann Coulter, I credit her with giving me the impetus to learn about the McCarthy era. She is the one who sent me down the road of trying to learn for myself more about the events of that time...

I heard, read and saw all the things on McCarthy over the years, the talk about the "Communist Scare" in the derisive quotes, the Evil McCarthy, the naming of names, the badgering and maltreatment of witnesses, the ruining of lives, and so on. I believed it all. I was pretty sure he was a bad guy, and "McCarthyism" was a bad thing. Walter Cronkite said he was bad, as did all the newspapers and media, as well as all of my teachers in school.

I never doubted it for one second, it never even occurred to me to doubt it. After all, WHY would anyone lie about this kind of thing? So I accepted it, hook, line, and sinker. And I don't think I was alone.

Then, I read "Treason" by Ann Coulter.

When I read it, I thought "This cannot be right. Both versions of this, Coulter's version and the one I learned growing up, were diametrically opposed to each other. What really crystallized it for me was the section described by Ann Coulter with Joseph Welch and his famous "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" quote.

The version I grew up with, is that McCarthy harangued and abused a person, Fred Fisher, an aide to Mr. Welch, outing him as a communist in open hearing activities that were completely unrelated to the young man. He did this out of complete and total malice, with disregard for the truth. Welch jumped to his feet, uttered the words, and courageously initiated McCarthy's slide out of power and ultimately to his death in disgrace. McCarthyism was discredited.

The version Coulter gives is that Roy Cohn, McCarthy's assistant was on the stand, being questioned by Mr. Welch. Mr. Welch ridiculed, belittled, abused and generally tried to make a fool out of Mr. Cohn and by extension, McCarthy. The questioning was, over and over again repetitively, something like "Now Mr. Cohn, we cannot have communists in our government, right? So...you well tell us where they all are now, right? We must get them all rounded up and out of the government by sundown!" Making squeals of mock horror, wide eyed, playing to the bank of journalists from the NYT and other papers, and so on. McCarthy apparently tried for several hours to get Mr. Welch to give it up and get on with serious business, trying to cut in with "Mr. Welch, please...let's get on with the business at hand..." and would be cut off by Mr. Welch, who continued to harangue Roy Cohn. Finally, after several hours of having his assistant belittled, ridiculed and abused, McCarthy stood up, angry and wanting to come to the aid of his assistant, Roy Cohn, interrupted and said something to the effect of: "Mr. Welch, since you are so inisistent on knowing where all the communists in government are, you should know you have one in your own office. Your assistant Fred Fisher in your Boston Office is a member of the Lawyers Guild which is the legal team for the American Communist Party, and is a member of another communist organization..." (not the exact words, but he said something like this)

So, I look at these two accounts which are completely different, who is right?

I obtained the transcripts of the hearings, something I would imagine only a very, very small percentage of Americans have ever done. And I read them.

Guess what? Ann Coulter's version is the accurate one. So I took everything I ever knew about McCarthy, communism in American, Whittaker Chambers, Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs and everything else, tossed it out the window and started from scratch.

I started out by reading "Witness" by Whittaker Chambers, and ended with several books about the Venona Project, with a bunch of books on McCarthy and books on Communism in America sandwiched in between.

I came to the conclusion, America had been betrayed by the Media, and liberals of that generation. In our lives, we had been fed a politically based version of "news" at the time, and in our schools our textbooks and history of the era is equally tainted.

Since then, I have not been able to watch or read the news from the main sources in the world, particularly not US media. I find it to be completely untrustworthy. I simply accept it as one source of many, which may or may not be true and must be independently verified or cross verified with other media types.

The material from the Venona Project has borne out the FACT that our government was RIDDLED with communist agents and sympathizers. People like Harry Hopkins, the closest, personal aide to FDR, was in the employ of the Soviets, verified by Venona intercepts. ANYONE out there ever wonder why we SCREWED the Eastern Europeans at Yalta? Harry Hopkins was FDR's chief advisor. I don't think it was a coincidence.

So, McCarthy was spot on. And he paid for it with his life and reputation.

Bottom line for me is that Ann Coulter has proven herself to be more truthful than her dissembling opponents, who still cling to the notions that Alger Hiss was not a spy and that the Rosenbergs were innocent.

I may wish that discourse in this country was more civilized, but in the face of the stuff spewing out of the mouths of the left, I don't wish to play by Queensbury rules. In my book, if you get kicked in the gonads, the person doing the kicking loses the unstated privilege of not being kicked there as well.

I respect and appreciate your civilized views on this, but I believe it must be a two way street. In my opinion, there is too much at stake. Ceding the high ground in the editorial section (in my case, to the likes of Joan Vennochi and Derrick Z. Jackson in this part of the country) to those who are not going to observe the rules is tantamount to tying a hand behind your back.

Would you mind if those of us who are closer to Ann Coulter on these issues call on people like you to mend the fences for us when the carnage is over?...:)

.... Taking her place on Saturdays will be Tony Snow, host of "The Tony Snow Show," syndicated nationally on Fox News Radio, and "Weekend Live with Tony Snow" on Fox News Channel. He has worked at a number of daily newspapers and is a former speechwriter for former President George H.W. Bush. ....

Personally I like the idea of replacing Coulter with Tony Snow. But I guess it would be asking too much to have TWO right-leaning people at one time.>/i>

Ditto.

Even though I enjoy reading Ann's columns I'll take Tony Snow over her anyday. Tony Snow is all about convincing his listeners and viewers on radio and TV respectively to agree with him and his point of view any particular issue / argument without trashing someone in the process.

Ann ... well Ann's Ann.

By the way, Ann Coulter and Zell Miller will be appearing at the "God and Country - Big Tent Concert Event" this coming Saturday, Sept. 3rd at the Pepsi Center in downtown Denver. All the details are here:

http://www.godandcountryevent.com/index2.htm

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