Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 384 Editor's Choice: 71
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The Woman Was Mentally Disturbed
[Read the article: Grace under fire]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Grace's production crew had to have known that. I had never heard of this case before the suicide, because I don't watch Toilet TV. But after the suicide, I went back and saw the stories which had been in the media, and it was apparent that she was mentally disturbed. Yes, she voluntarily went on Grace's show. But if she killed her child, she should not have been browbeaten like that because she is the only person who knows what happened to that little boy and is the only one who could bring about resolution so that the boy could at least be buried properly. To browbeat a mentally disturbed person on television when that person is a material witness and a potential suspect in the disappearance of a child is asinine. Criminal investigators have procedures when someone is a suspect and those procedures may eventually involve browbeating the suspect, but Nancy Grace is not a criminal investigator and the interrogation of a suspect should not be televised.
Nancy Grace is a first class asshole.
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I Agree With thatbob
[Read the article: Beyond the Multiplex]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The film is what it says it is. It is a look at some people at a camp run by a Pentecostal minister. It is "Jesus Camp." It's not claiming to be representative of all evangelicals or of all Christians (you don't see Catholics and Presbyterians getting all hot under the collar over it, do you? By the logic espoused by some here, a Muslim might think it representative of all Christendom). It's a very specific film about a specific group of people and how those people take their religion more seriously than anything else in life, infusing all parts of their lives with their religion, including their dealings with the worlds of politics and commerce. t is interesting to see how different people believe, and to see how they behave on behalf of their beliefs.
There's nothing "unfair" about it. It says it's about a fundamentalist Christian camp for kids and that's what it is. If someone is offended by Jesus Camp, by all means they should go out and make their own documentary about their own specific beliefs and show their own specific comrades at worship. But don't proclaim that Jesus Camp is unfair because it doesn't show your particular brand of religion. It's not meant to be a stand-in for all Christians, so stop behaving as if it is.
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This Is The Lead Headline Story?
[Read the article: Who is Louis Bayard?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A book review about a guy who won a trivia gameshow? Don't get me wrong, I don't believe every lead story has to be about earth shattering events --- but leading with the review of a book about a game show contestant is kind of a letdown. I am a premium subscriber, I pay to read Salon. Seeing this headline story is like tuning into HBO and finding the big show is "Survivor Eleventy Seven: Orlando, Florida."
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There's No Way
[Read the article: Good morning, Baghdad!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]this guy can broadcast over airwaves in Iraq without being located within minutes, due to all the technology we have over there, not to mention overhead in satellites and other military craft. This guy is full of shit. If he's going over there, he's going with the blessings of the government, which I don't doubt, seeing as the guy lives in Texas. He's a faux renegade.
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I Remember a Time
[Read the article: The Fix]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]when networks responded to hundreds, let alone thousands, of angry responses from viewers about television shows. I know thousands of people have contacted CNN about Nancy Grace's interview and expressed their disgust. But nobody even gets an electronically-generated email in response from CNN. I have called CNN when I've seen reporters making fools of themselves, or giving clearly erroneous information and have each time gotten on the phone people who sound like snotty, sarcastic interns making faces on the other end of the line. I've wondered if they are young relatives of CNN producers and newsreaders, as they don't even try to do a passable imitation of giving a shit about their viewers' concern .
I don't watch CNN anymore, but I do contact them when something like the Grace interview shows up on the internet (from those wonderful people who watch CNN so the rest of us won't have to). It means nothing anymore. As long as 3/4 of a million people out of 300 million tune in to see this fuming wretch's show, that's all CNN cares about.
I remember when Tex Antoine was tossed off TV for a rape joke. He'd worked on local television for years and was a beloved figure by many, but one rape joke got him canned immediately because of the warranted criticism of offended viewers. Today, a shameless, self-centered, proven liar like Nancy Grace is allowed to brazen it out after airing a disturbing interview with a subject who later committed suicide, and CNN gives her their full blessing because she brought in a few extra viewers. Bleech. I can't stand Nancy Grace, but I more heartily despise the more than 600,000 pigs who tune in and clamor for this excrable modern day version of bear-baiting.
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"The Washington Post points out that Wallace is not usually considered part of the Fox "network's conservative commentariat"
[Read the article: Clinton blasts Fox]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since when?
The Washington Post is wrong. I've never seen Wallace be anything but a Fox conservative commentator. And he has publicly said that his father has "lost it" and that the family was "going to have a competency hearing soon" because the elder Wallace had criticized Bush and the war in Iraq. That's not just wildly partisan, it's downright icky from a family privacy standpoint.