Furor swells over women, op-ed pages

Re “A Very Public Opinion Exchange,” by James Rainey, March 11: What is wrong with Susan Estrich? Has the well-known liberal feminist gone insane?

Her attack on Michael Kinsley, intimating that his Parkinson’s disease affects his judgment, was vicious, ignorant and unfounded. She wants women to be treated with dignity, yet she doesn’t treat others with that same dignity. She gives women and liberals a bad name.

Roger Angle

Culver City

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Kinsley should resign. I preferred the op-ed pages before he arrived. We could count on even-handedness, not a deliberate effort to provoke controversy. His language in the article -- “this jerk,” referring to Estrich -- is inappropriate for the editor of the L.A. Times editorial pages.

He is “a little queasy about pushing for more women”? The women of Southern California deserve someone who is at least 100% behind getting more women on the editorial pages.

Anne Eggebroten

Santa Monica

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Having The Times follow Estrich’s suggestion to have more women writing columns sounds reasonable. But I have a suspicion that Estrich will count as fulfilling her demands only those columns that lean left.

If the next 50 women the Times publishes give voice to conservative opinions, we will watch the fur fly again.

Manuel H. Rodriguez

Burbank

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I found Kinsley’s response to Estrich’s criticism of the L.A. Times’ opinion page to be disingenuous. To say that he is working on the problem means nothing in that he has been in his position long enough to have assigned more space to women. It doesn’t require a study; just pick up the phone and make some calls.

Gary Gilbar

Los Angeles

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