Lieberman’s TV Target

I must disagree with the bulk of Howard Rosenberg’s column “Lieberman May Not Like TV, but Camera Loves Him” (Aug. 11).

I applaud Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman’s willingness to speak out against the “rising tide of glorified violence and increasingly explicit sexual content” as seen on TV. Rosenberg disagrees with his assertion based on the premise that Lieberman watches little TV. So what! There are ways to obtain correct information beyond direct observation. If Lieberman is getting his information from a source he trusts, then let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.

The reality is that what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular. Americans may love their gratuitous sex and violence; this doesn’t make it good or right. Moral standards are not relativistic. They cannot be left to a “supply and demand” ethic.

DARRIN MARIOTT

Santa Monica

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We are not prudes, but it’s almost impossible to turn on regular television and not be immersed in sexually explicit material. We believe that Lieberman is voicing common decency and hoping that someone, including “liberals,” will say, “You know, he has a point and maybe we’re really seriously contributing to polluting our children and this world in general.”

STEVE and ELINOR FIENBERG

Westlake Village

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So Lieberman is “opinionated”? Just when did it become fashionable to trash someone because he has an opinion? And because William Bennett felt that the country and its culture are in steep decline and chose to write a book about it, what evidence is adduced to suggest he is “self-appointed”? Or is any author, left or right, “self-appointed”?

The crux of Rosenberg’s essay: “Clearly, though, Americans generally are getting the television they want, or else so many wouldn’t keep watching.” There it is: Public taste is the sole criterion for what is acceptable. Never overestimate the public taste.

It’s time Rosenberg exhibited a little more balance, a little more arm’s-length clarity. An overhaul of his writing will deliver him from the accusation that he is merely a shill for the entertainment industry that produces horizon-to-horizon slop and garbage on a sustained basis.

DAVID H. WALLACE

Newport Beach