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I was pointed toward Tim Rutten’s Regarding Media column, “Under Fire in Iraq, at Home,” June 3. While I was there, I read through his columns for the past month and I have to say, he’s one of the very few in what passes for “mainstream media” today who (like Dana Priest of the Washington Post, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s “Countdown” and a handful of others) take seriously their constitutional duty as members of the press to be government watchdogs for the American public.

In my more than half-century of newspaper reading, I have never been so afraid for the survival of American democracy as I have been for the past five years. It gives me hope when I stumble across writers like Rutten who aren’t afraid to speak truth to power.

Shame on corporate management of the press that there aren’t many, many more Ruttens and Priests and Olbermanns thundering against the excesses, lies and dismal failures of the current administration and political party in power.

SUE FOMBY

Louisville, Ky.

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I certainly wish that the chattering class, so critical of reporters in Iraq, would go there itself and gather up all that positive, favorable news that is being ignored by the “liberal media.” Of course, that would require courage and an open mind, qualities it so sorely lacks.

The problem with ideologues is that they are compelled to bludgeon, mangle and manipulate reality to fit their ideology; objectivity has no place in their worldview. Even the Bush administration has told us that they have their own reality and, unfortunately, the rest of us are paying the very high price for their warped view.

JAYCIE INGERSOLL

Beverly Hills