Newspaper listens to readers, withholds names of officials

In an interesting use of editorial discretion, the San Bernardino County Sun decided to remove the names on a list of public officials’ titles and corresponding salaries.

The newspaper had posted the list, names included, following a California Supreme Court decision earlier in the week that ruled the salaries of public employees are public information. In an editor’s note posted online Wednesday, newspaper editor Steve Lambert said he was persuaded by readers who called in to argue that "the greater good of publishing public salaries could be achieved without ‘outing’" individual employees on a Web site.