LETTERS ON THE MORALS OF THE MEDIA

We get letters . . .

You column, “Media under fire in a battle of conscience,” was an exercise in using propaganda to arouse emotions and sway opinions--hardly the mark of an educated, talented reporter. There are so many instances of name calling and card stacking, it’s impossible to cover them all.

An example: “Who’s to blame, anyway, if journalism attracts more liberals than conservatives? The Communists?” Does journalism really attract more liberals? It may be correct to say that more liberals get hired as journalists, but that’s another matter. Do Communists hire U. S. journalists? No, editors do.”

PEG MORELL, Buena Park

Your defense of the press rings hollow when we consider that last night John Chancellor continued his unabated attack on Israel with statements right out of the Arab Lobby handbook.

CHARLES ISAACS,

Los Angeles

While Pat Buchanan is certainly of a strong conservative persuasion, I do not understand why you write as if he should not be expressing himself on the airwaves. Just because his political views are so diametrically opposite of your own, I do not think it correct that you should demean his success in achieving his current position at the White House.

PAUL S. McCAIG, Dana Point

If Pat Buchanan is a “clown with clout,” as Rosenberg says, then Rosenberg himself can only be called a “clown without clout.”

VINCENT J. BAKER, Alhambra

The fact is, we need “goofy guys” like George Will, William F. Buckley and Patrick Buchanan. They are a breath of fetid air in this all-too-perfect world.

LOUIS HILL, Cypress

You pointed out some of the moral conflicts in journalism, but then concluded that no matter how imperfect our free press, there is nothing to be done about it because the only alternative is censorship. Wrong. There is another alternative, a system of media review boards, by which the media can establish professional standards and monitor itself for compliance, just as all other professions do.

W. MILTON TIMMONS,

Los Angeles Valley College

I must admit a certain macabre fascination in reading during the past several years, first, the inflated views of “the promise of cable” and, today, your version of how “the dream fades.”

Whose dream was that? Was there ever any sense of reality behind the promise which cable allegedly held? Did any one writing about the dream of cable ask the difficult questions? Who would support (fund) these new program sources? Where would the talent emerge to enable “10,000 flowers to bloom” on the new cable networks and in the community access channels across the United States?

A vision closer to the truth is that cable is a new, exciting, emerging industry. It is fractionalized and cable program networks are still in a shake-down phase.

Isn’t the creation of CNN, C-SPAN, The Weather Channel, The Financial News Network and the Arts and Entertainment Channel in a half dozen years . . . an accomplishment unparalleled in the telecommunications industry in the past 40 years?

Firing another bullet into the heart of the entire cable programming industry in its infancy based on the fact that some of the programming on cable is stale and trite is, frankly, gratuitous and absurd.

PAUL STEINLE, president,

Financial News Network

ABC and host Peter Jennings are to be congratulated on what I call an expose of the nuclear industry. It is long past due for the public to rise up. Class-action suits are required. The gates of hell are ajar. This waste disposal situation is no legacy to leave the generations to come.

R. H. CHRISTENSEN, San Pedro

ABC and Rosenberg’s article do, indeed, focus attention on the absurdity of any nation’s use of atomic warfare inasmuch as all nations have the capability or potential of nuclear power.

However, I take exception to Rosenberg’s statement: “The proliferation has also reached South Asia and the Middle East,” thus completely sidestepping or overlooking the fact that during World War II, Japan was in the race against the United States in developing its own atomic bomb.

LILLIAN BAKER, Gardena

Your nicely written column on Soupy Sales indeed raised him to “distinguished company.” That is, to his own level. I’ve been waiting for him to come back on Saturday morning, because in a little niche of his own, he was an artist.

MICHAEL JONDREAU, Burbank