Bruin Faithful Call Their Own Violations

The L.A. Times refuses to grasp one last iota of class in its continuing story about UCLA’s basketball program. It’s amazing how far your paper will go to try to generate a controversy just to rationalize your mistakes. First, the original story with the mistaken value of the Blazer, then the next article trying to infer violations from the employment of Baron Davis’ sister, then columnist Bill Plaschke ignorantly blasting Jim Harrick for failing to comment on next year’s recruits, which itself would have been a violation of NCAA rules.

Yesterday [Oct. 22], with no evidence of violations, Plaschke now tries to make a crime out of the fact that Harrick isn’t talking to the press. Plaschke’s ethical argument--about how we Bruin fans should demand Harrick talk about it all, is ridiculous, and a lame attempt, again, to find something at fault here.

There are plenty of instances in high-profile news stories when an involved party chooses not to speak to the press. Most of the time you would only choose to speak if it were to benefit you, guilty or guiltless. In this case, especially with the quality of recent L.A. Times reporting, UCLA believes that Harrick not speaking to the press is the most beneficial. What’s the crime here?

TRACY PIERSON

Placentia

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It is rare I have anything good to say about Peter Dalis, but this time he did the right thing in shutting up Harrick and keeping him from the wolves. Anyone who has ever attended a news conference knows that for the most part reporters are far more interested in fueling a scandal than finding the truth. Unfortunately, the truth has never sold a newspaper but scandals sell plenty. Bill Plaschke did his best to create one and his column only shows how disappointed he is at his failure.

JACK ALLEN

Pacific Palisades

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Need I remind Plaschke of his own words: “If [Harrick] is guilty, then he should be punished.” He did not say, “Well, even if he’s cleared, let’s keep lobbing innuendoes all the same, regardless of the facts.”

What’s next? Will Plaschke call for an investigation of the investigation?

LAWRENCE LEE

Brea

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I propose that all the Times writers who think Plaschke’s article even remotely resembles journalism form up behind the sports editor and march over to the Star, National Enquirer or the Globe to seek employment. Inquiring minds don’t want to know about such garbage. It’s time to move on to real sports and real news.

JIM VINT

Redondo Beach