Letters - public property ?

An amiable newspaper editor told me in a e-mail message :

    " We get zillions of letters ! "  A national newspaper like USA TODAY

    can get ( by their own count ) a thousand letters a week. About the

    same number of letters are received by the national magazine NEWS WEEK.

          Of course they all claim that they can publish only a fraction

    of them. But that fraction represents raw , unpolished, unpaid, often

    unrestrained , undisciplined, unabashed, unpredictable, unpretentious,

    and for timid editors - unsettling- PUBLIC OPINION .

          Since most people write to the major publications with some

    hope of publication, they are REALLY writing for the GENERAL PUBLIC.

    As a private business newspapers have no obligation to publish

    these letters. Advertising - not public correspondence - is their

    life blood. That newspapers are a force for  TRUTH, JUSTICE, and

    the AMERICAN WAY is only a comic book delusion.

        Still an interesting legal question presents itself: Do

    newspapers have a right to regard letters - intended for the

    public - as  their private property ?

         Should not ANYBODY be able to walk into a newspaper

    establishment- like THE NEW YORK TIMES - and demand to read

    PUBLIC letters ?  Letters that will never be published ?

           To say NO definitely would be to say that FREEDOM OF

    SPEECH is in reality just a PROPERTY RIGHT.

            Think about it !