HE’S NO. 1

Somebody still doesn’t get it! As a Michael Jackson spokesman, we alerted the media that our client had achieved a unique mark: His single, “You Are Not Alone,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the first week of release (Pop Eye, Sept. 3).

We didn’t fantasize this. It happened . . . and it’s never happened before. Michael Jackson is in Billboard’s record books with no Roger Maris-type asterisk next to his name.

Why is this so hard for envious backbiters--and writer Steve Hochman--to accept? And why are we, in stating this, apparently employing “desperate” tactics in some kind of overheated, overhyped “HIStory” campaign? In the past, we have seen The Times savor just such a concentrated PR onslaught--when the name was Spr*ngst**n or Th* *rt*st F*rm*rly Kn*wn *s Pr*nc*.

LEE SOLTERS

Beverly Hills

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Perhaps the Jackson camp wouldn’t need to hype its artist if the media were acknowledging him appropriately and not continually putting him down.

GLENDA ANN LINDSEY

Cerritos