Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Jayson T. Blairs and newspaper letter writers

        I won't say that Jayson T. Blair of New York Times was stretching

    DIVERSITY  enthusiasm, but it does look like that whatever the editors

    of ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT  say about the scandal.

            One way to avoid these newspaper fraud scandals is - I suspect -

    to pay more attention to  your rather obscure and undistinguished letter

    writers , the literary hoi polloi who love to sniff out baloney just

    for the sport of it.  Were there such letter writers that at least

    TRIED to bring Blair's fictions to the attention of honest but

    supercilious editors - not to be distracted by humble letter writers?

            " We welcome mail " . Yes, like you welcome in laws on holidays !


             If the New York Times wants to publish a shocking best seller :

    Publish a book of just 1000 letters NOT FIT TO PRINT !  Unlike other

    major newspapers , the VOICE OF AMERICA is hard to hear on prestigious

    Commentary Page of the New York Times - where we find all the opinions

    of the respectable Country Club - where even an honest Jayson T. Blair

    would be liberally snubbed .

Sunday, May 11, 2003

Empathy for over the edge cop

Story: a woman with empathy for doomed pit bulls infuriates

    an East Providence Police captain . He is caught seemingly threatening

    the woman with the crudest talk. Over and over again, we hear on TV :

    " I'm going to put it up her *** ! "   Horror mixed with vulgar

    entertainment for the TV audience - always on the side of virtue.

               A little irony here: many cops do indeed have pitbull

    personalities themselves. Can this woman empathize with THEM ?

               I guess at times it is nice to have a pit bull on

    YOUR side. Don't put this cop away. He needs a little more

    UNDERSTANDING. The stress of the job got to him. And you can

    hear ordinary drunken macho men talk like this to their wives

    or girl-friends all the time. For them some broads just need a

    smack , others more penetrating punishment. Soon they sober up

    and offer groveling apologies to THEIR woman.

                  This East Providence cop - I think - just needs a

    long  paid vacation.  And that pit bull lover woman a written

    apology - from this pit-bull like cop.

                   We must give our cops a rather long leash - in

    the interest of law and order. Tough job - being a cop !