BROADCAST NEWS

Call me a cynic, but Michael Sullivan’s commentary on how broadcast journalism can be fixed (“Too Much Dessert?,” Jan. 7) will fall on deaf ears in a city where it’s ingrained to measure real success or failure only in terms of numbers, either dollars or ratings.

In 1960, Edward R. Murrow said that the death knell for broadcast news would occur the moment the broadcasting corporations discovered that news could be made profitable.

Last year, in his book “Tinker on Television,” Grant Tinker said it was the responsibility of broadcasters to allow news divisions to operate in the public interest without being held responsible for generating profit. Tinker saw that as appropriate payback, as civic duty.

I won’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen, but I will raise this point: Should a turnaround begin, does anyone believe that the collection of attractive, culturally diverse men and women who report local news (not the anchors, the reporters) have the smarts, ability and integrity to make the kind of news judgments that would be required for this brave new world of TV news? Kissing up to celebrities and shoving a mike into someone’s face while breathlessly shouting “What’s your reaction?” as part of “team coverage” is what they’ve been trained to do. The ones who have judgment and smarts go to the networks or get out.

Former “NBC Overnight” host Lloyd Dobyns, when he was news director at Chicago’s NBC-owned station, was fond of saying, “Ratings are the last thing I think about--before I go to bed each night.” Until that changes, nothing else will. Meanwhile, thank God for NPR News.

MICHAEL HIRSH

Sherman Oaks

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For Sullivan to praise self-and-other censuring by media as “great discipline” is laughable . . . and sinister. The coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial allowed the great unwashed masses, of which I am one, to learn more about how the legal system does and does not work.

Return to your ivory tower, Michael. I’ll take tell-all TV and other media any day to your solutions.

JANICE KNOWLTON

Anaheim

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In a bygone era, with few media channels, a newsman’s power to decide what we “needed” to know was great. In today’s “Information (Overload) Age,” a unique, offbeat, informative, timely or valuable story is a blip on the incoming audiovisual stream.

This powerlessness has led to the “pack” mentality among journalists: Each outlet judges newsworthiness based on what the others are reporting.

The only hope for viewers is the sort of raw news provided by C-SPAN, CAL-SPAN and the like.

ANDREW TILLES

Los Angeles