Horowitz and the BBB

Regarding Dennis McDougal’s article on David Horowitz (“David Horowitz: The Consummate Consumerist,” June 5): It was bad enough that a working newsman took $60,000 from Better Book Inc., a private, for-profit publisher, to endorse its phone directory of local Better Business Bureau advertisers. It was bad enough that thousands of small businesses paid for advertising they never got.

But Horowitz made the situation even worse on the day the L.A.-Orange County Better Business Bureau went belly up. On that day, Nov. 4, 1987, he went on KNBC and delivered two commentaries. He blamed the very businesses who got ripped off by the BBB and the publisher it hired for failing to support the BBB! He never mentioned the phone-book fiasco for being the reason the BBB failed. He never mentioned his involvement in the debacle nor the fact he received $60,000 from the publisher.

How in the world KNBC’s management ever allowed Horowitz to make such statements is beyond comprehension.

TOM VACAR

Former KCBS-TV

Consumer Editor

Studio City