EMMY LETTERS : Answering ‘Family Values’ Campaign

Tell Howard Rosenberg to quit shedding crocodile tears for the GOP (“Is the GOP Getting the Last Laugh?,” Sept. 2). They asked for it.

For months, the Republicans have made sanctimonious “family values” the centerpiece of President Bush’s reelection effort, pointedly attempting to shift attention away from such real family problems as unemployment and lack of health care. Hollywood has taken it on the chin from “Murphy Brown” to Woody Allen in the most scurrilous and tasteless of attacks from Vice President Dan Quayle, the new Spiro Agnew, and Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, who, thankfully, can’t be compared to anybody.

Were the “cultural elite” supposed to merely sit still and take it? Is it really in bad taste to counter the charges of a campaigning politician? We’re always told that what makes this country great is our freedom of speech. So why the inevitable uproar when we choose to exercise it?

For my part, I’ll say that this is about the only Emmy broadcast I ever managed to watch all the way through--and I’m glad I did.

JOANNE G. MURPHY

Los Angeles