Readers React: Donald Sterling, don’t dig yourself in any deeper

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling needs to listen to the lyrics of the Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler,” soon. (“Donald Sterling flatly denies harboring racist views,” May 12)

Just as disgraced former President Richard Nixon once proclaimed, “I am not a crook,” Sterling told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he was not a racist. Even when I was in my 20s during the Watergate scandal, I knew Nixon was wrong. Today, as a sixtysomething father of three, I know Sterling is wrong.

As Sterling freely admits, he caused the problem. With this thought in mind, I hope he still is smart enough to know “when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, and when to walk away.”

Denny Freidenrich

Laguna Beach

The Donald Sterling case is interesting.

Many articles have addressed racism, an easy target. But where is the outrage for Sterling’s private conversation being published or recorded without his consent? Doesn’t one have a certain expectation of privacy in one’s home?

Is it right to force an individual to sell his property against his wishes, as the NBA might make Sterling do with the Clippers?

We must be able to separate these issues, as they raise some very difficult questions. Or are we afraid of being called racist for challenging them?

William Baker

Yorba Linda

I am not sure whether popular taste or editorial judgment is to blame, but I could not help noticing that a natural event that may lead to a 4-foot rise in ocean levels was pushed to the corner of Tuesday’s front page by four (count ‘em) photos, a giant headline and a four-column story about, yes, Donald Sterling.

Edward J. Costello

Santa Monica

I am incensed that Sterling is yet again on The Times’ front page.

For weeks now I have been greeted by the face of this self-aggrandizing man. If you must write about him, then bury the article somewhere on the back pages. By now, Sterling is old — very old — and tiresome news.

Do I have to stop reading the paper just so I no longer have to suffer this man?

Janet Doyle

San Gabriel