_______________POX POPULI BY JAMES LEDBETTER (11/10/97)

Having just read your Media Circus on the ills of public broadcasting, I felt compelled to respond. I've been a supporter of National Public Radio for many years and a devoted listener. For this reason I feel qualified to comment on its quality. NPR gives us day after day comprehensive, well-rounded national and international news. Your assertions of bias in their programming is certainly less evident than in most other mediums. The sensationalism that permeates many "news programs" and pops up in even the most respected network news is seldom heard on NPR. They appear to cover the successes and failures of both political parties. This type of unbiased, objective reporting of the news and issues of the day is what I expect from public broadcasting. It is, in my opinion, what NPR's listeners get. I was interested to learn from your article that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board is appointed by the president. While it is an interesting fact, I fail to see how that corrupts the public nature of CPB. Who is it, in your opinion, who elects a president? If it isn't the public, then you have MUCH bigger bones to pick than what is wrong with CPB! If the president wields such incredible influence over the tone of CPB, why haven't there been massive turnovers in newscasters as presidents come and go? Through Republican and Democratic administrations the same personalities continue delivering the news with the same diligence and professionalism. The reason CPB survived the Republican offensive is because the public rose up in its defense. I found it curious that you do not cite any examples of biased reporting in your article. I listened to some of the hearings on CPB and heard many accusations, few that stood up to scrutiny. I'm sure that CPB is not perfect and bears its share of scars and missteps. Do you contend that private news sources are more ethical and worthy? That if we allow the "free market" to dictate which news organizations survive we will have quality products to choose from? (The success of the National Enquirer, the Globe and the like beg this proposition!) How can you advocate the demise of the organization that brought us Big Bird, Elmo and the pervasive purple one, Barney? What next? Dr. Seuss, the Grinch or Santa?! Lastly, I am not familiar with your publication but I am sure that you would consider CPB to be a competitor to some degree. Therefore, your assertions about the grave problems within CPB can't be considered completely without bias either. -- Sue Burton AOL Thought I was going to read something new per Public Broadcasting only to find you had hired a liberal writer (Ledbetter of the Village Voice) to report on a liberal institution. He gave himself away when he referred to Rush Limbaugh's "atrocious" program. Oh well, maybe someday you fellows east of the Hudson will make some attempt to connect with fly-over America. -- Ronald Ternosky Plano, Texas James Ledbetter may be liberal and a staff writer for the Village Voice and the author of "Made Possible By: The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States," but he is as uninformed as I or any typical American consumer of media deliverings. Most of us have done little or no research, much like Ledbetter. Regardless of the political headstands PBS must go through to survive, making bows to Democrats and even (arrgh) Republicans to avoid their budgetary scalpel, and despite Rush Limbaugh being aired here in Colorado by KBDI, a PBS affiliate, PBS -- both radio and TV -- continue to stand far above all the networks AND cable offerings in quality and respectability. PBS provides by far the best alternatives in balanced reporting of news, features, music, humor, community affairs, etc. Ledbetter is merely part of the communications elite he purports to critique. PBS is well worth my personal investments, both as a taxpayer funding PBS, and as a listener-sponsor of several PBS radio and TV stations. (By the way, I called KBDI and canceled my support for them due to the fact that they chose to air Rush Limbaugh. They heard many listener-sponsors opinions and guess what, they responded, unlike most commercial and cable stations, who respond only to their advertisers and corporate owners.) -- Paul Riederer Boulder, Colo. The truth cannot be found anywhere else (but public broadcasting) because all the network and local producers live their journalistic lives in a fantasy world of innuendo. They choose to have programming for the sake of ratings only and therefore are limited to pap which will appeal to the largest quantity of unthinking sheep looking to suckle on the bloated silicon filled mammaries of these rating whores. Give it a break, will you? -- P. West If Jim Ledbetter had had his way, I would be consigned to listening to either traffic reports on I-10 here in Baton Rouge or more country-western dribble. Instead, I get international news better than in my daily paper, sound clips as varied as a recently deceased blues artist or the sounds of a fire raging out of control in California. Do I like everything I hear or see out of public broadcasting? Heck, does anyone like everything they see or hear out of anything? No. But I do appreciate the diversity that opens this conservative's mind just a little now and then. Can you imagine just the Internet over coffee in the morning? I think not. Any public entity performing a commercial service finds itself in a pickle. The fact the CPB handles this mission well at all should deserve accolades. The fact that liberals and conservatives alike are both occasionally offended should provide solace to Mr. Ledbetter. Until he has a better replacement, I would suggest he confine his remarks to urbane publications like the Village Voice and leave our National Voice unfettered. -- Gary Lee, Baton Rouge, La. SALON | Nov. 18, 1997

R E C E N T L Y+| THE NANNY MURDER BY CAMILLE PAGLIA

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