Letters, Jul. 29, 1974

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The Press: Fair or Foul

Sir / Although a Nixon supporter, I can find no fault with your excellent cover story and essay on the American press [July 8].

HANS G. ENGEL, M.D.

San Fernando, Calif.

Sir / The defendant has sat in judgment on his case and found himself innocent. Now isn't that a surprise?

W. WENDELL HEILMAN

Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Sir / The silver lining in Watergate has been the demonstration of the necessity for an investigative, and yes, aggressive press.

JAMES LEY JR.

Green Bay, Wis.

Sir / I would gladly vote for repeal of the press's First Amendment rights.

ERIC LYSS

Bodega Bay, Calif.

Sir / You seem to be appalled by the apathy of the public, and even Congress, toward Watergate and seemingly feel it is, and was, your duty to beat and continue to beat it to death. You have not shown, and I doubt if you can ever show, anything more than what the public already feels: that Watergate was about as alarming as a group of small boys trying to steal green apples.

DALE M. UNDERWOOD

Santa Rosa, Calif.

Sir / If we people in the smaller cities had to rely on our (one only) morning paper, we would be skipping to the grocery store, wearing our rose-colored glasses, paying high prices on grain and dairy products without knowing why. Thanks to publications such as yours, the Washington Post, and national news coverage, we know why!

(MRS.) MARCELLA LAROCHE

Terre Haute, Ind.

Sir / The definition of "newsman" is changing from "one who reports the news" to "one who makes the news."

JIM HALAVIN

Amherst, N.Y.

Sir / A survivor of "the old George Seldes-A.J. Liebling school" wishes to say that your cover story and Essay make up one of the fairest reviews of the journalistic situation he has read in the past 60 years. It is also one of the most alarming. The press deserved the attacks and criticisms of Will Irwin (1910) and Upton Sinclair (1920) and the muckrakers who followed, and it needs today the watchdog and gadfly activities of the new critical weeklies, but all in all it is now a better medium of mass information. It therefore deserves more public confidence than the polls you quote indicate. The 1972 Watergate disclosures, it is true, were made by only a score of the members of the mass media, but I remember Teapot Dome when only one of our 1,750 dailies (the Albuquerque Morning Journal) dared to tell the truth about White House corruption. We have come a long way since.

GEORGE SELDES

Windsor, Vt.

The Real Prisoners

Sir / Since there was no script and I have no copy of TV's 2,251 Days, it is impossible for me to verify what you quote as my opinion of the North Vietnamese: "petty, vindictive, mean little people ... an armed group of paranoid children" [July 8].

The quotation as reported was accurate only in respect to the North Vietnamese Communists who held me captive. However, it would be a grave injustice to call this the national characteristic of millions of sensitive, creative and patriotic Vietnamese both North and South. My ire is directed toward an ideology. My empathy is for those enslaved by Communism.