_______________"FACE-TIME" BY ERIK TARLOFF REVIEWED BY SCOTT SUTHERLAND (01/04/98)
	Thank you for the opportunity to offer a response to Scott Sutherland's review of "Face-Time," a new novel by my husband, Erik Tarloff. I was motivated to write this response because Sutherland strongly intimates in his review that the book is based on my relationship with President Clinton -- which is definitely not the case -- and because Sutherland said in his review that he "would love to know what Tyson thinks of all this." Well, here are my thoughts for him and for your other readers. I love the novel. And contrary to your critic's insinuations, it is a novel, a work of fiction. Although Erik did make use of our time together in Washington, D.C., to get the White House atmosphere right -- and insiders as diverse as William Safire and George Stephanopoulos have agreed that he got the atmosphere exactly right -- the story is his own invention, not inspired by anything we observed or experienced while there. Indeed, my husband began writing the novel months before we or anyone else in America knew anything about the president's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. And my husband considered abandoning the book precisely because he was concerned that readers and reviewers might mistakenly assume that his work of fiction was based on fact. I strongly discouraged him from doing so, and I'm glad I did. Erik has been a writer for as long as I've known him, and I've never known him to borrow events from his own life when inventing a story. When he wrote a screenplay about the first scholarship students to attend Harvard, it wasn't because he lived in the 18th century, had been a scholarship student or had attended Harvard. He wrote several episodes of "M*A*S*H," but he didn't serve in Korea. He wrote several episodes of "The Jeffersons," but he isn't black, and he's never been in the laundry business. In other words, he believes the free exercise of his imagination is part of his professional obligation as a writer of fiction. Sutherland's suggestion that Erik has tried to market the novel as a roman à clef is also wrong. Whenever he has been asked, Erik has emphatically denied any autobiographical component to "Face-Time." He has even written a "My Turn" column accepted for publication by Newsweek in which he complains about such unimaginative, literal-minded readings of the book. I view Mr. Sutherland's suggestions as an insult to Erik's professionalism, as well, of course, to mine. A critic has every right to his opinions about a work of art, however arbitrary. But it seems to me that when he goes beyond the work under discussion to speculation about the life of its author and his family, he might first take the trouble to get the facts straight. -- Laura Tyson Berkeley, Calif. (Laura Tyson is the former chairwoman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors.)
_______________BLOOD MONEY BY SUZI PARKER (12/24/98)
	I found the timing, prominence and title of this article to be surreal and offensive. The author failed to make any effort to place the shortcomings of the Arkansas prison plasma program in the context of the times (it is well established that the entire national and international blood collection and distribution system failed to respond to the HIV problem in a timely or appropriate manner). She suggests, without any proof, that tainted plasma was knowingly sold. The most egregious offense, however, is that the title and the story repeatedly imply that then-Gov. Clinton had a direct hand in the situation. The support for that proposition consists of nothing more than McCarthy-esque insinuations. If I want to read this type of trash, I will subscribe to the American Spectator. I am removing Salon Magazine from my bookmarks. -- Lee P. Alfieri Plymouth, Mass. In 1978 no one knew anything about AIDS, and the blood supply was checked for very few if any illnesses. We have people in this country who died from receiving nonprison, non-Arkansas blood -- and it sounds to me that the prison went through what the entire country went through in regards to the blood supply. You should be ashamed of yourself for allowing this piece to being published as revealing something bad the president did as governor. -- Virginia Polzins On my first visit to your Web site, I was amazed to learn how some of my fellow Canadians ended up suffering from Hepatitis C. The Canadian media has provided a great deal of coverage on the Krever Commission's deliberations, but I had never read about the "Arkansas Connection" in any newspaper. Moreover, as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and a strong supporter of the Chretien government, it was interesting to learn how a government with an almost-perfect record up to this day came so close to be toppled by what has come to be known here as the "Contaminated Blood Scandal." Yours is an excellent magazine. Keep up the good work. It would be a delight to read more articles concerning Canada. Why not, in a not-so-distant future, a Canadian edition of Salon Magazine? -- Marc F. Bellemare Montreal I must question the assertion that the HIV/Hepatitis C scandal nearly brought down the Canadian government. While some members of the governing party had concerns about the government's handling of the settlement and might have voted against the government on a "free vote," there was no risk that they would vote against the party on a nonconfidence motion. To repeat, at no time during the HIV/Hepatitis C affair was there a serious possibility that the Canadian federal government would fall. -- Andrew James Aurora, Ontario So Pine Bluff, Ark., is a "Southern city swirling in secrets"? God, how original. Read enough Southern Gothic novels? I realize that Salon was trying to prove with this article that it is in some way objective about Clinton, yet it ended up making one of the most typical Clinton scandal reporting mistakes: assuming, based on what one has read in pulp novels, that the entire South is corrupt and always has been, that anything about the South is worth believing as long as it is weird enough. Grow up. -- Ray Mikell It's commendable that Salon printed this story and is willing to give the Republicans and Salon's detractors a glaring example that Salon is neither biased in favor of the president nor connected to the White House. Having said that, it looks like Suzi Parker is trying to jump on the bandwagon in "getting" the president, and in doing so is willing to stretch the connection to him in her story -- as if he was the one who initiated this plasma program and personally benefited from it. Maybe Parker should have investigated a few other state's prison programs. I'm sure there are a lot of negative things going on in prisons all over the country and Canada, but you had to single out Arkansas and Clinton. Why? --- C.B. Abrams Louisville, Ky. Frankly, I am wearied by articles and allegations such as these. Apparently, one can say anything about Clinton, accuse him of any heinous crime, assert the most outlandish things and expect to have it all taken seriously. Clinton has now been president for six years; where was the author when it counted? -- K.H. Fitzpatrick A blood program that is forced to target an "undesirable" population? This is decades-old news. It's why scientists are working so hard on finding synthetic blood substitutes. Your reporter should look at where commercial plasma centers are placed: They are invariably in neighborhoods filled with either desperately poor, usually unhealthy people or cash-strapped college students. Both populations tend to take drugs at higher rates than the national average. The real outrage here is that so few people worldwide bother to donate either blood or plasma unless they are being paid to do it. This guarantees that the blood supply in constantly under threat. I urge all those reading this letter to make an appointment to donate blood at the earliest opportunity. -- Teresa Huberty Minneapolis N E X T+P A G E+| White Southerners deride Salon columnist Joe Conason for making "reckless" accusations