Right vs. Left

Within an eight-day period, Calendar shoved down our throats columns and columns of copy defending, worshiping and applauding rap sounds. What kind of paranoia is this?

On June 18, you attempted to put down Judge Jose Gonzalez’s ruling against 2 Live Crew by discrediting lawyer Jack Thompson’s successful efforts to get the group’s record album outlawed in a Florida county (“The ‘Batman’ Who Took On Rap”).

On June 24, you gave Hilburn 1 1/2 pages as a platform to dignify rap as he saw fit. And while we were still reeling from Hilburn’s unabashed brainwashing, you gave almost half a page on June 25 to rap performer Ice Cube as a forum for his contempt toward those who believe, plain and simple, that rap, for the most part, is a tasteless and offensive form of expression (“Black Culture Still Getting a Bum Rap”).

A quality product could sell itself without help from The Times.

Hilburn must have swallowed hard while admitting that rap is alienating so many and making them nervous. His words, not mine: “The language and themes . . . can be shocking”; “street-smart vocal insistence . . . sonic assault . . . sometimes jarring”; “the rappers . . . appear threatening.”

It’s an insult to our intelligence when Calendar persists in reasoning that the widespread distaste for rap and its content is mainly racially motivated, and, further, that if for no other reason, approving its censorship will lead us unwittingly to erosion of our rights of free speech. Then through all of this, you interlace the whole censorship matter as a confrontation between liberals (approval of rap) and conservatives (disapproval).

Is everything simply right versus left with The Times? Must we hide our personal dislike for things obscene, tasteless and without musical merit (and damaging to America’s already sagging image abroad) in the name of free speech?

There’s something to be said about the opening words of Judge Gonzalez’s 2 Live Crew decision: “This is a case between two ancient enemies: Anything Goes and Enough Already.”

NORMAN JACOBSON

Los Angeles