War Coverage and Censorship

If there’s any redeeming feature of the Persian Gulf War, it’s the public’s expanding awareness of the no-nonsense news coverage of CNN. Although we’ve long had the CNN choice, we can only wonder why we’ve blindly tuned in, more often than not, other major networks’ local news programs where it seems hard news takes a back seat to the mindless banter, giggling and on-screen social chitchat between co-anchors, movie critics, weathermen and sportscasters.

Shades of “Mister Rogers!” But no problem. Let the local 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news folks fraternize among themselves while we switch channels to CNN where newscasters get down to the business of reporting what we want to see and hear and talking to, and looking at, us rather than themselves.

NORMAN JACOBSON

Los Angeles