Times Editor Carroll on Pseudo-Journalism

Re “Pseudo-Journalists Betray the Public Trust,” Opinion, May 16: Los Angeles Times Editor John S. Carroll said it all when he said that a newspaper’s duty to its readers is at the core of its ethical beliefs. And those who transgress against the reader will pay dearly. I quit subscribing to The Times years ago when it became too anti-conservative in its beliefs and presented only the arguments of an increasingly leftist, socialist, Democrat Party view. (Unfortunately, my wife subscribes to your Sunday Times, and I looked it over to see if it might have changed. It has gotten worse.)

Because The Times is so one-sided in its leftist, anti-conservative beliefs, it cannot be fair and balanced and present both sides or points of view of a story. The Times’ biased views cannot be journalism but are, in fact, propaganda.

Tony Sayre

Riverside

How amazing it was to read Janet Hook’s “Iraq War Eclipses Domestic Agenda” on the front page (May 16) and then find Carroll’s Opinion piece trashing Fox News regarding opinionated journalism. Hook’s article is loaded with her own opinions, such as, “Pity the advocates of overhauling Social Security.” This kind of rhetoric belongs in the editorial pages. So does most of her highly opinionated, slanted article.

At least people watching Fox News know Bill O’Reilly is as much show business as he is informative. Try following some of your own advice, Mr. Carroll.

Oliver Watson

Orange

The tragedy of Carroll’s sanctimony is that he actually believes that The Times’ news articles represent unbiased reporting.

Thomas F. Brands

Los Angeles

This is to thank Carroll for having the courage to tell it like it is. For too many years Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the far-right paid mouthpieces of the GOP have paraded themselves as legitimate journalists. Unfortunately, the mainstream press has aided them in this parade by lacking the courage to blow the whistle on them. I cannot recall how many times I have read about the lying Limbaugh appearing as a guest on another network or at a professional press event as though he might be a serious journalist rather than the entertainer he himself admits to being.

It is sad that the bulk of the American public is not sophisticated enough to check out what Fox News and Limbaugh spew out as fact and to look for other sources of information.

Ralph G. Long

Newport Beach

Carroll’s tirade against Fox News might have been more credible had it not been printed in a section of almost uniformly anti-administration rants, including the comic strip that filled the other half of the “continued on” page with his piece, and in a newspaper whose in-house columnists are uniformly liberal.

William H. Deaver

Mojave

Your Opinion section had wonderful commentaries. I especially commend you for Carroll’s piece on pseudo-journalism, Jack Miles’ essay on the Iraq war’s final reckoning (Commentary) and Barbara Ehrenreich’s reexamination of feminism.

Joyce Jensen

La Habra Heights