A Right to Know?

So, I’m reading the Calendar section and I start an article entitled “ ‘Star Wars’ Echoes in the Plot of ‘Willow’ ” (by Pat H. Broeske, Nov. 30) and I’m about a paragraph in when I realize I’m reading pieces of the story of a movie I haven’t seen and I slam the paper shut.

You guys kill me. Why do you do this? Does this fall under the heading of “the public has a right to know”? Or is this some journalistic version of that childish cruelty, that impulse to spoil, that you so smugly personify?

Are you aware that ideas can be stolen? That they can appear in television a lot faster than in a film? That right now someone can be ripping off some sad exploitive quickie version of other peoples’ work and spoiling, truly harming, the entertainment impact, to say nothing of the artistic impact, of the work that was so mugged? And mugged, in no small portion, by you?

And please don’t bother to say you didn’t “tell the ending.” Intangibles, detail, tone and other such subtleties that you either disdain or don’t comprehend, these things are as violated by your misbehavior and misuse of your position.

And shush , please, about freedom of the press. You are apparently of the school that says if it can be printed, it should be printed. Balderdash. Try to remember what civility means, and grace.

In a phrase, only in cases of national security do you have the right to behave like an egregious weasel.

RICHARD DREYFUSS

Culver City