Late-Night Tone

Re “Letterman Breaks From Routine” (by Brian Lowry, Sept. 19): Watching David Letterman with Dan Rather Monday night and then Jay Leno and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Tuesday was the difference between night and day.

Sen. McCain’s articulate and carefully chosen words set the right tone for Jay’s return to late-night television. Leno’s monologue was a pure class act.

BILL SMITH

Indian Wells

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On this very somber Letterman show, Dan Rather broke down when talking about the attacks and he reached for Letterman’s hand and he asked for a commercial. When they came back, he apologized for breaking down and simply said “I’m a pro”; he said it a couple of times. He then quoted the last stanza of “America the Beautiful,” but only got as far as the second line: “O beautiful for patriot dream/That sees beyond the years/Thine alabaster cities gleam/Undimmed by human tears.” And he simply broke down and struggled, without much success to compose himself.

As much as the media can be abrasive, and as critical as we can be of them, there are still some, the old-timers of the broadcasting industry, who demonstrate the character of this country. Like Walter Cronkite reporting that President Kennedy had died, these broadcasters that carried so many of us through the horrific events of last Tuesday with their calm reporting helped guide a terrified public. When the president was still under wraps and being shuttled from one location to another, it was the likes of Jennings, Rather and Brokaw that we looked to for assurances.

Until watching Rather weep with the country, I never really gave serious thought to the stress of being “live,” on the air, for so long, a national voice in a national crisis, and having only horrible news to report. Monday night, Dan Rather demonstrated to us all that he is indeed a pro.

ANNA McCARTHY

Long Beach