When a person cancels a subscription to the Star-Tribune, our circulation department lets me know if the reason has to do with the content of the newspaper.

In my first month as editor, I'm happy to report that I haven't received many such notices. But we did get one last week that mystified me.

The reason this subscriber is canceling? Bias in our editorials.

Wow, I thought. Guilty as charged.

By definition, the editorials we publish Mondays through Sundays in the Opinion section are biased. They're an expression of the Star-Tribune Editorial Board's opinion, an attempt to stimulate discussion and debate on certain issues - and perhaps help shape public perspective.

As it turns out, the subscriber wasn't really objecting to the fact that our editorials are "biased"; she simply disagreed with the position we took, and she decided that canceling her subscription was the best way to make her feelings known.

I certainly respect the reader's right to use her pocketbook to express herself, but there are more effective ways to voice her disagreement. We offer a daily public forum for people to give their opinions in letters to the editor, and on some occasions, we allow lengthier responses as guest columns.

Publishing a six-day-a-week editorial is a significant investment of resources that not all newspapers are willing to make. We do it because we believe a robust discussion of state and local issues is an important part of our mission. We don't expect folks to agree with our positions; in fact, we expect some disagreement, which is a healthy part of our public discourse.

Sometimes, though, a difference of opinion can lead to an unfounded allegation of inaccuracy. That was the case with a couple of editorials in the last week or so. Rather than recognizing a simple disagreement over our conclusions, some people involved in the polarized issues said we had published falsehoods in our editorials.

Whenever such an allegation is made about something we have published - in the Opinion section or in our news columns - it is something we take seriously. I listened to the concerns, looked back at what we had published, and determined that in one instance, one of our editorials had incorrectly paraphrased what a public official had told one of our reporters for a news story.

We acknowledged and apologized for the error, but it did not change the editorial's conclusion. And I determined that the other criticisms stemmed from the belief that we had given too much credence to what people on the opposing sides of the issues had said - that there was disputed information with no clear indication of who was right.

Sometimes we are wrong. Sometimes we publish things that are incorrect, both in editorials and in news stories. When that happens, we do our best to correct the inaccuracy, whether it was our fault or not. And we appreciate the input readers provide.

One more point regarding our editorials:

A number of people in comments on our Web site, www.trib.com, have complained that the editorials are "anonymous." The implication is that the authors are hiding, unwilling to be accountable for what we have written.

The fact is that the names of all editorial board members are published under each day's editorial in the newspaper. While each editorial has one primary author - usually it's Kerry Drake, our opinion editor - the pieces are all products of the board members' debate and discussion.

If you have a beef with an editorial, you're welcome to contact him or me. Or, better yet, send us a letter to the editor. If it meets our standards for libel, taste, length and the like, you'll probably see it in print.

Do you have a question or a comment for Editor Chad Baldwin? You can call him at 266-0583, or send e-mail to chad.baldwin@trib.com.