Dear Editor:

Star Ombud Don Sellar (A Misuse of Nazi analogies, March 15) gets
it wrong in his column's final paragraph.

Rosie DiManno shouldn't have avoided the use of "NicoNazis" because
it "cause[s] pain for people".

A newspaper has no duty to avoid offence.  After all, if the Star prints
material about evolution, some Christian fundamentalists will be offended.
If it praises a Salman Rushdie book, some Muslims will be offended.
Some vegetarians may be offended by Star Food section recipes containing meat.

The real reason Rosie DiManno should have avoided the term "NicoNazis" is that,
by comparing reasonable restrictions on smokers to a genocidal
regime that killed millions, she trivializes the Holocaust.

When even minor governmental restrictions on conduct are equated with
mass murder, rational public debate is not furthered.

Jeffrey Shallit