Heavy edits on reader's letter [Fail]

Here is an wonderful post which contains the sequel to this impressive heavily edited letter from a reader, Samuel Wee, to the Straits Times Forum.

According to the author of the letter, it was literally 'distorted and misrepresented' when it was published on the Forum.


Now, I'm already under the impression that news that you find on standard media are usually manipulated (which I don't really mind since it's really easy to dig out the dirt when I want to).

Please allow me to be the straight man here: "Why even publish the letter?"

Why even attempt to straighten out the content of the letter when it's actually substantial enough for an editor to probably edit a whole new article for the next day's newspaper?

I'm not sure how things work over at Straits Times, but if you were keen and ethical about what you are going to publish, shouldn't you clarify with the author? If it really is content that you need to substantially edit, doesn't this mean that the letter isn't suitable for publishing? Why bother?