Why Not Engage The City Club?

Help me with my bafflement. In Slant (7/7) you present a story: City Club asks if you would like to pose a question to their panel entitled, “Can Local Newspapers Be Saved?”  You “politely decline[d].”

May I ask why?  

Perhaps in order to protest the all-male speakers on the program? But instead of comforting them with your silence, why not confront them with your participation? 

Explanation, please.

Lou Caton

Eugene

Editor’s Note: The all-male speakers didn’t arrange the program and didn’t require confronting. We took our concerns to Joel Korin, of City Club’s Program Committee, who suggested discussing a “women in media” City Club program. We encourage folks to listen to the July 7 program on the City Club or KLCC website, and in particular, note the question about diversity asked by Molly Newhard, editor of Lane Community College’s The Torch.