NIX ON <i> POPULI</i>
When Howard Rosenberg wrote, “If a significant number of Americans believe a candidate’s private life is a factor in their decision how to vote . . . the press has an obligation to disclose” that information, was he aware that a significant number of Americans might not believe it is a factor (“A Weekful of Dramatic Real-Life TV,” May 9)?
Obligation indeed!
I am surprised that Rosenberg would trot out that discredited give-the-people-what-they-want excuse. At other times he has rightly denounced that for the sleaze it justifies. The major media are more closely related to National Enquirer journalism than they care to admit publicly.
I am sure Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were, and are, paragons of sexual virtue. But a significant number of Americans knew before those men were elected about other more relevant things regarding the hearts and minds of those men. A significant number of the media failed, however, to disclose that information.
Until it was too late, of course.
THOMAS ROBISCHON
Venice
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