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MoparMuscle wrote:I received an aswer to my e-mail to the editor.

Dear Richard --
Robert Rivard asked me to read your e-mail to him, investigate what happened with Clay Robison's column Monday and determine why the Jerry Patterson quote was excised. Here is what I learned:
I don't know if you read Monday's Robison column online or in the Express-News, but if you're a regular Express-News reader, you probably know that Robison's column normally appears at the top of Page 3B in the Metro section every week. This past Monday we had a small section, and had to place a larger-than-usual string of obituaries on Page 3B. That meant the Robison column didn't fit in what was left of 3B and had to be moved to the back page in the section, Page 6B.
However, space there was tight too because 6B had to accommodate the continuation of a story that began on Page 1B and several additional obituaries. That required editors to do some cutting to fit everything into the space available. Part of what was trimmed from Robison's column was the Patterson quote.
The editor in charge said there was no chicanery involved with the cut. The fact is the whole column could have been cut for the week, but the editors tried to make the best of a bad situation. We think Clay's insights from the state capital are worth publishing, and we wanted to save as much of the column as we could. We're sorry we didn't save the part you liked.
A final note: If you compare the Robison column from week to week, you might find other differences. Both the Express-News and the Houston Chronicle reserve the right to display the story as we see fit. We don't, however, change his opinion or the meaning of what he writes. And you didn't ask, but the column that runs in the Express-News newspaper is identical to the one that is published online at mySA.com.
Thanks for the inquiry and for reading our newspaper and/or Web site.
Bob Richter
Public Editor
210-250-3264