The N&R’s Jeri Rowe highlights the plight of film critic Mark Burger, who was canned by the Journal back in November. Journal editor Ken Otterbourg blogs about it with “grace and restraint,” as Rowe put it. How kind of Otterbourg to be so graceful and restrained when talking about giving employees the ax.

Rowe writes, “Winston-Salem — home to the RiverRun International Film Festival and the School of Filmmaking at the N.C. School of the Arts — will have to depend on movie reviews from somebody out of, say, Los Angeles, Chicago or even Orlando, Fla., to tell local folks what to see.”

Greensboro already does, and has for quite some time, considering the N&R hasn’t had an in-house movie critic for years. Funny Rowe doesn’t mention that, nor does he mention that it doesn’t seem to bother N&R editor John Robinson.

But the N&R’s lack of a local voice to review movies highlights for its lack of an inside presence on the editorial page. During the week, the N&R only has one op-ed. (Rosemary Roberts doesn’t count.) Where are the other editorial writers? I have to believe they could hammer out a weekly column in addition to their other duties. And why is Robinson’s column relegated to B2 on Sundays? Robinson’s inside view of the N&R is interesting and, I believe, would be more thought-provoking on the editorial page during the week, when his readers’ mental juices are really flowing.

A stronger individual editorial presence, aside from its team of politically-correct metro columinists, might give the N&R’s readers more to think about.