The President and the Press

In denigrating the accomplishments or lack of them during the Bush presidency, Bernstein’s article showers self-righteous satisfaction on how the now intrepid media have been able to unmask the ineptitude and even the dishonesty of the President. He mentions that the same rigorous standards of the media have also been applied to Clinton and Ross Perot.

To make himself credible to thinking persons, Bernstein must now turn to Clinton’s years in Arkansas and tell us to what extent Clinton may or not have areas of culpability; and he should tell us how the media have or have not uncovered unsatisfactorily matters concerning Perot. Not to do so, but merely to state in an anti-Bush article that the media have applied their same self-appointed fearless task to Clinton and Perot is not enough.

Bernstein, as a result of this article, reveals himself to me as a spin doctor who would influence my vote against Bush, not as an unbiased representative of the media reporting facts about all candidates. If it’s not possible to afford Clinton and Perot the same Bernstein scrutiny, it would be courteous of him to point out that President Bush somewhere, sometime, somehow during his presidency did something worthwhile for the American people. No? Well how about the Kuwaitis? The Saudis? The Kurds? Continued normal flow of oil for the free world? No? Is Bush really that despicable? Wow! What more can I say?

ALLAN C. DALE, Laguna Hills