Newspaper gets complaint about giving “too much space to libertarian columnist”

Judge Gray sent us this Letter to the Editor of the Daily Pilot, which publishes his weekly column, “The Functional Libertarian”. We also publish it here at Independent Political Report.

Mailbag: Pilot Gives Too Much Space to Libertarian Columnist

I keep looking for the word “advertisement” in small print with James P. Gray’s columns.

Must be that my eyes are getting worse, because I just can’t find it. Surely the Daily Pilot would not offer all of this space for him to pitch libertarianism for free, right? If he wrote only an occasional piece on the topic, I might let it pass, but it’s been two weeks in a row.

First, why is it that the most vocal of the “get the government out of our business” folks seem to be those who have spent their careers earning a taxpayer-funded paycheck? Gray, a former judge, earned a taxpayer-funded paycheck almost his entire working career, and I am sure we are paying for a healthy pension as well, now that he is retired.

Second, his Sept. 28 column was more of a libertarian daydream than a fact-filled essay. Not sure most of us would want to upend our education system based on the things he says probably would happen if we followed him into this dream state.

Third, Gray suggested that more people are becoming attracted to the libertarian philosophy. Based on what?

If the Daily Pilot wants to give newspaper space to support other viewpoints than what Democrats or Republicans give us, it would be well advised to seek input from the millions of folks who base their reasoning on real-world ideas and real-world solutions to our problems rather than those who parrot the party line, be it Democratic, Republican or Libertarian.

Tom Walker

Costa Mesa