For shame, Bangor Daily News. Some of your recent coverage has been a bit shrill. With a tone more like the corporate media than the reasonable local daily, your stories on the Walker Bros. Circus were one-sided enough to be dishonest.

However, that’s the way it is with animal rights fights; hyperbole on the one side, the truth on the other, and the animals left in limbo. Is it a slow news day when a 1997 violation becomes front-page news, or an editorial comment?

An animal control officer in Ellsworth told me the animals used by Walker Bros. were beautiful and were well cared for.

There is another side. You could have done a story with wonderful pictures of the thousands of smiling faces exiting the big top at any of Walker’s more than 20 stops in Maine. It is a good show with a talented clown, his most talented 12-year-old daughter, and four acts with animals.

Jennifer Walker delights with her dog act, Sashie Walker presents a spirited miniature horse act, Jason Walker displays a giant Suffolk horse and an American miniature stallion, and then, those beautiful African elephants. That, apparently, is not of interest at your paper.

Harry Gordon

Bangor