Notes on a family, a candidate and a commentator

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Among recent coverage bringing numerous notes was a story about accusations of Munchausen by proxy, an examination of feminists and Hillary Clinton, and the obituary for William F. Buckley Jr.

Sunday’s front-page saga by reporter Tracy Weber of a mother of four accused of fabricating her children’s ailments -- a condition known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy -- has prompted some 100 comments so far, most short and sweet like this from Lyn Kienholz of Los Angeles: ‘Your article was fascinating, gripping, and very scary.’ The piece detailed what happened before and after the day social workers took the children from the family home. Dennis Campbell of Aztec, NM wrote: ‘Powerful, and so well written and constructed. The power the state has over families is terrifying, and we have almost no recourse. Terrific job.’ Readers also wanted to help. This from Linda Livingston of Los Angeles was typical too: ‘What a nightmare this family has been through. Excellent article exposing the shortcomings of medicine and beauty of a heroic mother and a doctor who believed her. Is there a fund to make contributions to to help this family pay some of their bills?’

(The readers’ representative office is forwarding donations to the Redlands family.)

When it comes to women and Clinton, ‘theirs is a gender divided,’ as a March 2 story by Robin Abcarian put it. Readers both for and against candidate Hillary Clinton responded; the gist of the reaction was best summarized in this from Cathy Wantz of Hagerstown, Md.: ‘Great article. It sums up what I have said all along.’ Two others from the 100-plus responses to the piece:

• From Diane Height of Aliso Viejo, ‘Thanks for writing this article. I’m for Hillary, but if she doesn’t get it, I don’t want one woman to complain about not breaking through the glass ceiling.... In my opinion, you have no one to blame but yourself.’
• From Dinah Lee Küng in Switzerland (‘I’m a very active member of Democrats Abroad’): ‘Nice piece. I’ve fought a lot of feminist battles. I couldn’t give a hoot whether I live to see a woman in the White House, especially if it’s the wrong woman.

Louise Clarke Stone of Sunland wrote that she was ‘very moved’ by what she called a ‘wonderful remembrance of Mr. Buckley’ on Feb. 28. Readers from all over the political spectrum also said thanks for the obituary by Scott Kraft (Kraft, The Times’ National editor, did the paper’s last major interview with Buckley, in 2001, for the L.A. Times magazine). This from reader Stuart Weiss: ‘As a JFK Democrat converted as much by Buckley’s wit as his intellect, I found great comfort reading Mr. Kraft’s words. There is no question that William F. Buckley stands as one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century.’

Sid Skolnik of West Hollywood called it ‘first rate, the best I’ve read in the many newspapers I have access to via the Internet. Politically speaking, I had little in common, but that does not stop me from mourning the passing of a true renaissance man and a brilliant intellectual national treasure.’ And this (somewhat ambiguous) praise for The Times, and Kraft, came from Joe Silverman of San Diego: ‘I’ve been a reader of L.A. Times since 1953 and have learned to read between the lines, first ‘right’ then ‘left.’ On increasingly rare occasions, a writer makes my task much easier. Your Buckley obit was one such occasion. Thank you.’

And just a couple of notes on coverage from around the world:

Bahman Garemani of Stockholm sent this e-mail commenting on the articles and analysis produced by Borzou Daragahi: ‘Always a great pleasure. They are objective and more informative than any other articles published in American newspapers on Kurds and Kurdistan.’

Mark Magnier’s Feb. 28 Column One about man vs. an ATM, and what it says about China’s justice system, brought several nice notes like this one from Bernie Leinfelder of Los Angeles: ‘This is the first time I have felt moved to write to a newspaper journalist to commend them on their reporting/writing. Your article on the Chinese ATM glitch is the funniest thing I’ve read in a while. Obviously, there are serious repercussions to the story, especially if Xu Ting is penalized by a fine or prison sentence due to his 171 trips to the ATM in a 24-hour period. That must be some kind of record in tenacity! Great article.’