Edited

For a while now the News has been running its reader-contributed Speakout columns online with a note: "This Speakout has not been edited."

Not been edited? Is that, like, normal for a newspaper these days? Oddly, not all Speakouts bear the warning (or whatever it is). Here's one by Henry A. Hurst, III of Aurora, on, er, Experiential criterion of divinity (yes, I'm always working that in somewhere):

I would like to put Doug Leek's challenge "Find Out About Jesus For Yourself" (Letters 3/12/07) into a somewhat timeless perspective that I have discovered in my research of this subject.

Not edited.

But this one, on the Army's use of Colorado land? Edited.

How about "The dangers of motorcycle helmets"? Nope. Or a Speakout on the Voice of Coors Field controversy (bet you didn't even know there was one):

The Colorado Rockies recently announced Ryan Saunders as their new Public Address Announcer for Coors Field. But it appears the Rockies knew they were going to hire Saunders before they even put the ad on their website or planned their media-frenzied contest.

Rigged American Idol-type competition: not edited.

Most of them aren't. What exactly does "not edited" mean, anyway? Spelling not corrected? Facts not checked? Piece not even read by an editor? Weird. Even dangerous. I like that. Not something you often associate with newspapers, danger.