Bennett Does About-Face on Public Broadcasting

Having done his share to take the public out of public broadcasting by beating the drum for an end to its public funding, William J. Bennett chuckles to learn that his “Book of Virtues” will be on PBS (“New Page for ‘Book of Virtues,’ ” Calendar, Sept. 2). His broken-backed excuse for profiting from this liberal conspiracy against public virtue? As a critic of TV, “it’s good to be doing something about it.” Anyhow, its being on PBS isn’t “crucial to its existence on the air”; it would have been sold “eventually to somebody.”

Bennett also explains that because he was trained as a philosopher, “my task is didactic.” Well, philosophical training encourages other virtues too, among them consistency, integrity and intellectual honesty.

THOMAS ROBISCHON

Culver City