PRESIDENTIAL COUP RUNNETH OVER

We get letters. . . .

Howard Rosenberg, not exactly noted for his own articulateness, took on a subject too big for his TV-coverage specialty when he accused President Reagan of fumbling reporters’ inquiries Oct. 11 in Chicago.

Reagan was in the midst of a highly secret set of complex decisions during the time of the Chicago event. If the “great communicator,” as Rosenberg calls him, wasn’t performing to TV standards, too bad, but he had something a little more pressing on his mind.

Let’s hope that in the future Rosenberg is more cautious in his criticism of a great and popular President. Tables have a way of turning, and this time it not only turned on Rosenberg, it fell on him!

LELAND OLIVER

Corona del Mar

In referring to the premiere episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” you described it as a “modernized Hitchcock episode about a screwy woman who caused her husband to kill a man she had accused of assaulting her.”

With the media exploiting and demeaning women constantly and portraying them as victims to boost ratings and box-office receipts, to find Linda Purl’s battered character referred to as merely “a screwy woman” is offensive and insensitive. You totally ignored her brutalization.

NANCY SKIBA

Los Angeles

It seems to me that the one who is most confused about the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner is the egotistical, opinionated and usually off-base Howard Rosenberg.

VERONICA STOCKARD

Canoga Park

I pride myself on my tactfulness, but I must tell you what a jerk you are and can think of no polite way to put it.

President Reagan literally saved the lives of countless people from those maniacal hijackers. He is the first American President in God knows how long to continually show courage and strength working toward restoring our reputation as a nation to be respected, rather than walked upon. After all that, all you have to write about is his supposed lack of polish with the press. He deserved a pat on the back, not your kick in the rear.

ALICE M. MILLER

Diamond Bar

While we must congratulate NBC for showing the “other side” of President Reagan, we should not forget Peter Jennings of ABC. The embarrassment of Jennings as he sought to extricate himself and his long-time friend, Yassir Arafat, was to say the least, amusing. The glum look on his face showed his own feelings.

LESLIE COLE

Sherman Oaks

Your column on Pat Robertson really hit home. I’d also been goofing on “The 700 Club” and have been fascinated by its glib charade of a conventional newsmagazine show. But, as you made clear, Pat is no joke; he’s dangerous. He’s also one of the smuggest, most self-righteous “Christians” doing business, i.e., his recent explanation that the killer hurricanes miraculously left his church untouched because his congregation did some heavy praying. Woe to those who ain’t got what Pat’s got; they get what they deserve.

GENE SCULATTI

Los Angeles

Your column on Reagan was right on and accurate. I watched on CNN in amazement our President’s unpresidential fumbling.

HILDA MARTON

Los Angeles

Apologize to Ronnie, Howard, there’s a good boy.

At the same moment you were sitting before your word processing monitor, Reagan--because he’s a nice guy and hates to dispirit relentless probers--was giving the deliberate appearance of “misspeaking.”

You say: “. . .It’s important for the nation to see all sides of a President. . . .” Wrong. Not when he’s working out the where and when and what and who and how of a retaliatory maneuver.

PAUL BELANGER

Beverly Hills

You criticized the good-bad guy dichotomy of Saturday morning TV. Now I readily grant you that the stereotyping of people and groups of people is a bad idea, tending to promulgate inaccurate and harmful ideas, But I can see no way other than simplistic presentations to teach children the idea of good and bad.

SPENCER BOLES

Riverside

Imagine the effrontery of it all: Pat Robertson’s show “presenting points of view under the umbrella of news.” GASP! This Mr. Robertson obviously is a threat to our rights under the First Amendment which, as everyone knows, clearly states that only commercial network newscasters shall have the right to present “points of view under the umbrella of news.”

FRANK C. KIRBY

Redondo Beach

It is really shameful that Howard Cosell, who has such a command of language, should also have such an abominable growth of ego while lacking even the remotest semblance of humility.

DAVID TOBIN

Los Angeles

I am sick and tired of listening to you criticize an excellent commentator, John Madden, one of the few color men doing NFL games who is insightful, perceptive, educational and entertaining.

BILL FATT

To whom should Cosell be humble? To a tribe of envious, terminally stupid mediocrities and pretentious exhibitionists with nothing to exhibit? Humility, like modesty, is a form of groveling, not to mention a revolting kind of hypocrisy.

Those who have achieved outstanding things, Mr. Rosenberg, know what they have achieved. It is the lack of appreciation they cannot understand.

RENNE GIFFORD

Pasadena