Opinion: In Friday’s Letters to the editor
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Harsh words for Jay Leno, of all people, in Friday’s Letters to the editor.
William Mitchell of Sun Valley writes in response to Tuesday’s story about NBC’s plans to move Leno into its nightly 10:00 p.m. slot -- instead of continuing to pay for more expensive scripted shows in primetime.
The star and the network, Mitchell says, are selfishly forgetting the thousands of others who make their livings in TV:
It is great that Jay Leno gets to save his job by moving to 10 p.m. while hundreds of good-paying union jobs -- acting, writing and otherwise -- will be lost as more scripted television shows are eliminated. NBC executives are shortsighted on this job issue also. Greed is good ... if you are Leno or top brass at a network. As a Screen Actors Guild member, I hope the 10 p.m. Leno show falls fast in the ratings because of a lack of quality guests.
Readers offer thoughts on the Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich melodrama (or is it a comedy?), on the drug war in Mexico, and on this Op-Ed suggesting that foreign automakers match the UAW’s wages and benefits. Bob Condon, of Clyde Hill, Wa., sums up the response:
Cutler suggests that the answer to Detroit’s noncompetitive, high wage and benefit costs is to foist those costs on currently nonunionized U.S. auto manufacturers. He should know -- but either doesn’t or ignores it -- that the auto manufacturing economy is global and that raising costs throughout the U.S. will only result in the jobs going elsewhere. The real answer to Detroit’s problems is to do away with the excesses of the UAW.