Editorial or Opinion

1. Examine the editorial/opinion pages of a major newspaper such as the New York Times. What distinguishes the writing on these pages from the articles in the rest of the paper? Why are editorial/opinion pieces included in newspapers?

The writings on the Editorial pages of the New York Times are distinguishable from the other articles in the rest of the paper because they are all one’s opinions – either an editor’s or a citizen’s. The majority of the articles presented in the New York Times are either hard news or soft news stories. Hard new articles include timely reporting of events that have happened. It provides the reader with the relevant pieces of information concerning that specific event. Soft news articles provide information and written with the intent to entertain or inform on more human interest or novelty matters.

The articles on the Editorial page, in contrast, do not provide detailed information concerning an event and were not provided to entertain. These articles are strictly the personal view of an editor. An editor will use the hard new story concerning an event and formulate a personal judgment or belief based on the facts of the news story. While some editorial pieces could be considered to be entertaining, their purpose is to provide a separate or distinct view away from the facts. These pieces are included in the newspaper to make one think, to look beyond the facts presented on the page.

As the editor works for the paper, their opinion becomes the opinion of the paper itself. The opinion editors are removed from the main news section of the papers and the articles on the editorial pages are identified as such. These provide the editor, and in turn the newspaper, with a voice. The paper may gravitate and support one political candidate over another. The paper may be identified as being a more libel or conservative paper. Growing up in New York, The New York Times was a Sunday staple. Our local paper was the Staten...