Taking Liberties With Conservative Thought

Re “Liberal Media Ignore What They Don’t Want to Hear,” Commentary, Feb. 14: As the country reels from the Enron scandal--grand theft--and waits for the other shoe to drop from the ill-conceived, albeit successful, effects of Enron’s lobbying to influence George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on energy policy, Norah Vincent has the audacity to suggest that “special interest bureaucrats,” which she defines as flacks, are “almost exclusively the property of the complainant left.”

Would that be the oil industry flacks? The arms industry flacks? The drug industry flacks? The agricultural industry flacks? The auto industry flacks? No, she’s concerned about those who work for human rights. These people, without billions of dollars and an open invitation to the White House and Wall Street, apparently have too much power.

And who’s to blame? She blames the corporate media, which published the very books she cites for her so-called evidence. This upside-down, inside-out logic qualifies her to run Enron, but as columnists go, in an otherwise thoughtful newspaper, it raises the question: What planet did you get her from, and when will you send her back?

Gary Gordon

Venice

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I welcome the insights of Tammy Bruce in her new book, “The New Thought Police: Inside the Left’s Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds,” outlining the undemocratic actions of various leftist organizations. However, I would suggest that Vincent take some time out to learn some manners; blistering diatribe is not necessarily persuasive commentary, especially coming from a member of a “think” tank.

Vincent came off sounding like a vein-popping AM radio talk-show host, not as someone interested in furthering the public discourse on efforts to quell terrorism. Ironically, I first heard about this book on National Public Radio, not exactly a conservative media source.

Andrew Basmajian

Los Angeles

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Here’s another “parrot slogan” for Vincent: The liberal media are only as liberal as the conservative businesses that own them.

Aaron Albelo

San Gabriel

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I am still in shock over Vincent’s commentary on the liberal media. As a frequent critic of her editorial ramblings--especially the one on Feb. 7 on why we are hated--I now willingly give her some kudos. She not only has awakened to a situation that has been in existence for decades but she also gives a little boost to Bruce’s expose book on the liberals’ attack on free speech and free thought and to Bernard Goldberg’s book on media bias (“Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News”), both of which are must reading.

Bob Franz

Placentia