Why we don't sign edits: Editorials are written on behalf of all of us listed in the blue box

In letters to the editor and conversations with members of the editorial board some readers have taken issue with The Daily Tar Heel's policy of not signing editorials.

The practice is pretty common industry-wide.

It's not that we're trying hide behind a mask of anonymity by omitting names from editorials.

We don't sign them because they are attributed to all of us and our names run at the top of this page every day.

We'd like to use this space to explain in more detail how we operate.

Board members meet three times a week to discuss editorials. Prior to meeting each member of the 11-person board sends out an e-mail with at least three ideas.

After Opinion Editor Harrison Jobe compiles and prioritizes this list we discuss our opinions. We also hammer out an angle usually mentioning specific points to hit on — all before assigning one member to write it up.

Sometimes the writer sends a draft over our listserv to ensure it encompasses all the points we discussed in our meeting and other members offer feedback that oftentimes gets incorporated into the final version.

Our debates both by e-mail and in the meetings sometimes get quite heated.

But even if they disagree with the majority of the board on any given issue all members stand behind each editorial.

Each person takes ownership of the opinion and the process through which it was derived.

We're not trying to be opaque.

But signing editorials would not increase transparency because it would not reflect the editorial-writing process.

Editorials are not the product of the individual who wrote them. They are a group effort.

Hopefully this explains the process better.

Signed

Abbey Caldwell James Ding Meredith Engelen Patrick Fleming Nate Haines Harrison Jobe Pete Miller Allison Nichols Cameron Parker Andrew Stiles and Christian Yoder.