Controversy Over Quayle’s Nomination

The press vendetta against Quayle once again reveals how far the press has sunk in the last 15 years.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the press resolutely ferreted out the true story of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s (D-Mass.) incident at Chappaquiddick and exposed the abuse of presidential power by President Richard Nixon. This was the zenith of newspaper journalism. But by 1987 the press had been reduced to voyeurs skulking in the weeds trying to catch Hart with his latest girlfriend. In only a decade the press has plummeted in the eyes of the public from its journalistic pinnacle to a nadir of tabloid meanness and triviality.

The hounding of Quayle by TV and newspaper journalists again betrays this tendency toward witch hunting and character assassination. The journalistic mean streak was revealed in the prosecutorial style cross-examination of Quayle by reporters in Quayle’s hometown. For this they were justifiably jeered by Quayle’s neighbors.

The Times joined this vendetta with its string of self-serving articles which sought to create a scandal out of nothing. Only to The Times and the rest of the cynical press community does Quayle’s joining the National Guard constitute a scandal.

RALPH W. BALLMER

Escondido

The Times received 429 letters on Quayle’s nomination; 294 were critical of his nomination, 112 supported him, and 23 took no stand.