DRUGGED

Terry Atkinson’s review of the Entertainment Industry Council’s video “Stop the Madness” (Sound and Vision, Feb. 9), crossed the bounds of journalistic freedom and became a personal indictment that revealed the deep callousness and ignorance of the reviewer.

I make no quarrel with anyone’s opinion about the music or the video production, since, quite clearly, there is no accounting for taste. However, to refer to Whitney Houston, Herb Alpert, the New Edition, etc., as “minor R&B;/pop talent” is ludicrous for someone supposedly informed about the music scene.

In addition, the labeling of the facts exposed in the anti-drug video as “horror-of-drugs cliches” shows either a pro-drug stand by the reviewer, or a blatant ignorance of the epidemic drug problem among our youth: Two out of three teen-age deaths are drug and alcohol related. That’s no cliche.

TIM REID

Vice Chairman, EIC

North Hollywood