Coverage of Scandals Is No Joking Matter

Two high school buddies swap a couple of used shirts for a pair of used pants and you say, “Now There’s a New USC Investigation”? If you’re going to print jokes in the sports section, at least have the decency to put a “smiley face” in the headline to warn us.

NORM SWATON

Downey

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Last week’s writer, John Redmond of San Dimas, derisively asserted that Keyshawn Johnson settled on USC after failing to meet Miami academic standards. Bruin John failed to mention that Keyshawn did not meet USC’s standards, either. He attended junior college for two years, earned grades good enough to enroll at any Pac-10 school and chose the Trojans.

Bruin John also questioned the honesty of USC’s football program. We admit to our past transgressions at USC, but no Bruin should be pointing the finger across town. Has Bruin John forgotten the names Billy Don Jackson, Jamir Miller, Bruce Walker, Tommy Bennett and Darryl Henley? Please do us a favor and mind your own business.

RON ROGERS

Laguna Niguel

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A letter to the editor selected for publication on the “controversy” surrounding Keyshawn Johnson is indicative of the editorial irresponsibility that so confounds readers of The Times who are also USC supporters.

Would the editor of the sports section, for the sake of equal time, choose to break the story that while I was at USC, we thought UCLA stood for University for Children of Lower Achievement?

RUSSELL SCHROEDER

Los Angeles

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Don’t people realize, there is not one college football team in all of America that the NCAA could not find fault with if they really wanted to?

BOB LAUMAN

Van Nuys

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The article on Tommy Prince’s fourth SAT score being invalidated clearly demonstrates how far The Times will go in its kid-glove treatment of UCLA.

When Kenneth Haslip of USC was accused of cheating on his SAT off an examinee seated six rows away, The Times featured this as its leadoff story with a headline that implicated USC, and a black-and-white photograph of Mr. Haslip that can be fairly characterized as a mug shot.

In comparison, The Times devoted approximately only 345 words to Prince’s SAT problems, put the story at the bottom of the page with an innocuous headline, and adorned it with a color photograph of Prince dunking.

The Times should be embarrassed at its blatantly disparate treatment of adverse stories concerning USC and UCLA.

CARLO PACIULLI

Arcadia