Letters

THE GROWTH OF GIANTS

Regarding Neil Hickey's fine piece on the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ("So Big," cjr, January/February): the joy over the passage of the Act was not in the least misplaced. Congress and its attendant satraps had delivered the goods to the only people they care about - their sponsors. The calculus of the Act had nothing whatever to do with the interests of the consumers - only with corporate profits, and the surety that cartelization can proceed.

Robert C. Sommer
New York, New York

While the consolidations continue, has anyone noticed, as we have out here in the boonies, that The New York Times recently bought KFOR-TV, the NBC affiliate, in Oklahoma City? There has been no immediate change in its newscasts, which had the distinction of being among the top ten TV stations leading with blood-and-guts stories before the Times bought it and with no visible change since. As for the ABC affiliate here, it is owned by Gannett.

Stuart C. Van Orden
Perkins, Oklahoma

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Oh, how we all sympathize with Glenn Lovell and his embattled confr?res, the film critics of America ("Movies and Manipulation: How Studios Punish Critics," cjr, January/February). Why, those meanie studios withhold junkets from those who don't slaver over every latest release, and worse yet, won't let uncompliant press members into screenings!

Did any critic ever learn anything about the quality or lack of it in a movie from a junket? Not likely. As for the screenings, last I heard the top price for a first-run film was $8.50, even in New York. Pay your way, boys and girls, and you can write what you want.

I don't think any real critic's voice has been "muted by angry publicists and powerful agents."

Samuel Pennington
Waldoboro, Maine

PREEMPTIVE PROGRAMS

In his November/December article "The Lives We Would Like to Set Right," Michael Shapiro urges the press to offer more thoughtful news stories on the child welfare system, stories that capture the complex circumstances that underlie family abuse of children. Shapiro correctly points out that child abuse will not be explained or remedied by stories that focus on flawed agencies, incompetent caseworkers, and villainous parents.

For the child welfare system to protect children after abuse has already occurred, a caseworker would need to make the right decision every time. That is impossible. Child abuse is preventable, but it is easiest and most successfully prevented before the first abusive episode.

Most child abuse occurs to children who are younger than five years of age and most of that abuse is inflicted on children in their first year of life. Successful social service interventions to prevent abuse need to begin before a child is born and continue through the child's infancy.

Home-visiting programs like Pants Too Soon in Illinois and Healthy Families America in Hawaii work with families with infants and have shown promising preliminary results. One key to their success is that they help parents manage the challenges of raising children before unhealthy patterns develop and disciplinary measures get out of control.

Shapiro suggests that journalists ask larger questions about child abuse cases, probing antecedents of child abuse and the possible consequences of child welfare agency decisions. I look forward to reading such stories. One thing is certain: it is loving, successful, resourceful families who provide the ideal settings in which to raise children. Journalists can play an important role in reducing child abuse by exploring ways that government agencies and community organizations can help families succeed.

Harriet Meyer
Executive director
Ounce of Prevention Fund
Chicago, Illinois

A JOURNALIST'S LOT

Never has the astonishing hubris of the junior press corps been more comically obvious than in the snooty assertions by which Columbia Graduate School of Journalism students answered the question, "What is a journalist?" (Publisher's Note, cjr, November/December).

Of sixteen respondents, fifteen would probably be happier seeking careers in social work, children's television, or, better yet, the New Age movement.

The one answer that demonstrated a realistic appreciation of the newshound's lot - (a journalist is) "a nonfiction writer with a job" - was at least featured at the top of the collection.

And its author just might have enough brass to survive the bitter realization that from the standpoint of American newspaper management, a "journalist" is merely someone hired (at the lowest possible wage) to fill the spaces between the advertisements - generally with material intended to do nothing more than keep the advertisers happy.

Loren Bliss
Former investigative reporter, editorial page columnist, city editor, rimat, etc.
Yelm, Washington

TRUE COLORS

How grateful I am to you and Christopher Hanson ("Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Klein," cjr, September/October) for pointing out that I utterly misconstrued the truth about Primary Colors, that Joe Klein ("Anonymous") has, in fact, suffered through a heart-wrenching, breast-beating moral dilemma, a Jekyll and Hyde dichotomy ". . . that started turning (Klein) into Hyde spontaneously, without warning, against his will, (until he) was found out by suspicious colleagues."

I had assumed that this was a preplanned collusion between Joe Klein and his publisher on one hand, and the circulation gurus of The Washington Post and Newsweek on the other.Shame on me.

William Troy
Eastlake, Ohio

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