Controversy Over Meese

Editorial decisions--decisions about the quality and presentation of information made from a purely journalistic point of view--are what distinguish first-rate journals from second-rate publications. Editorial decisions, like that allowing “Poor Judge of Character?--Meese Links With Scandal Tied to Quality of Friends” (Part I, Jan. 31) to be run as front-page news, certainly enable the reader to distinguish first-rate journalism from second-rate press.

The Times eludes “first-rate” status when the reader finds an officially prepared gossip column on Meese being run as a front-page news item. The thesis is so crassly designed to manipulate opinion (while having been derived entirely from unidentified officials and associates of said civil servant) that I feel insulted as a reader.

PETER H. GLASER

Santa Barbara