I just finished reading Peter Andrews’s article “The Press” (October). I found it extremely interesting on the historical background of how we’ve come to the journalism that we, as readers and consumers, are forced to endure on a daily basis. But while I enjoyed the article, I take one exception: the author’s asking the readers of newspapers “to develop a bit of patience with newspaper coverage.”
For twenty years as a police officer I have been in a position to watch how our local and sometimes regional papers and electronic media can butcher a story, get it completely inaccurate, or simply lie. Once, for instance, my partner nearly lost a very serious and delicate rape investigation because an uncaring reporter and an indifferent editor decided to run a piece about the suspect.
You see, the suspect was the father of the two victims. Although the newspaper did not print the victims’ names, it printed his and revealed that the victims were his daughters. Both of them were in high school. You can imagine the problems this caused.
More recently, a local paper attacked county firefighters for their lengthy response time in getting to the scene of an accident in which the victim burned to death, citing mileage and driving times that were completely inaccurate. The editorial writer did not take the trouble to drive the distances himself, but used a map and as-the-crow-flies reckoning.
I’ve seen many other reporters who had the ability to get the information fail to do so and print erroneous stories and editorials that immediately affected the lives of those involved. When later the stories were found to be wrong, there was nary an apology, only a small retraction buried somewhere in the paper.
If I had brought such a brash and cavalier attitude to my job, I would have made many more sensational arrests, but I also would have had a great many more of them thrown out of court. I had to get the facts straight, put them down in a logical sequence in a report, and have it read by a superior and the district attorney before I could get a warrant for a felon’s arrest.
What is wrong with having a reporter do the same thing? I still believe that a free and independent press is one of the best things this country has, yet that freedom is handled by reporters and their papers in such a nonchalant way that I sometimes wonder if they realize the awesome power and responsibility they have.
Mark Tarte
Livermore, Calif.
The Press
As a newspaperman myself, I enjoyed Peter Andrews’s history of U.S. newspapers. However, I must challenge his statement on page 44 that “probably the only journalist to become a head of state was Benito Mussolini.”
How about Warren G. Harding, publisher of the Marion (Ohio) Star, and John F. Kennedy, whose only job in the private sector was as a newspaper reporter?
Also, on page 39, the caricature of Horace Greeley shows that worthy holding a copy of the New York Herald Tribune. But not until 1924 did the Herald and Tribune merge, and by then, of course, Greeley had gone West forever.
William Francis Freehoff
Kingsport, Tenn.
Picture Snatchers
You have done us a good turn by presenting Tom Howard’s classic photo of the electrocution of Ruth Snyder in its original form (“The Picture Snatchers,” October). Though no one can deny the impact of that long-ago New York Daily News front page, the uncropped image tells a bigger story. In the group of spectators on the right, a woman turns away from the gruesome scene while her male counterparts continue to watch. Only their legs are seen, but they complete the picture of the execution.
James S. Brust, M.D.
San Pedro, Calif.
Union Blues
In his excellent article in the October issue (“The Business of America”), John Steele Gordon expounds on some of the reasons for the decline of the American labor movement. There are, however, many more causes of labor’s woes.
Newly powerful unions proved to be just as arrogant and predatory as their bosses had once been, and reaction and retaliation predictably began chipping away at the unions’ newfound power. Labor’s steadfast opposition to new technologies, individual initiative, and modern innovation, particularly among the craft unions, doomed the unions as surely as the dinosaurs.
Most significant of all is the part government played, albeit unwittingly, in the downfall of big labor. In its zeal to get government on its side in promoting its programs, labor conceded to government the enforcement of most of its bread-and-butter issues—child labor, working hours and overtime, health and safety, racial and sexual discrimination and harassment, workman’s compensation and retirement, minimum wages, and much more. Most of what once were the benefits of belonging to a union are now guaranteed—not by the union, but by the government—and the worker doesn’t have to pay dues or attend meetings.
James E. Adams
Sonoma, Calif.
Leopold Loyalty
In 1990, forty-two years after Aldo Leopold completed A Sand County Almanac, it evoked, as it still does today, unusual loyalty. In the incident I have in mind, Steven Wright, then Vermont Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife and later president of Sterling College, was the dinner speaker for a workshop of the Vermont Audubon Council. At one point, quoting from A Sand County Almanac, he stopped and asked for a show of hands of those who owned a copy, and for another show of hands of those who did not. Then he left the hall without explanation. Coming back with eight copies, he passed them out to the eight nonowners, explaining in his wrap-up why every environmentalist should own one.
That spontaneous tribute led the council to undertake a creative and dramatic project. Oxford University Press sold us two thousand paperback copies of the Almanac at cost, we solicited funds, and we put the books in two thousand hotel and motel rooms along Route 7 in Vermont, beside the Gideon Bible. Many innkeepers and visitors were charmed. Local book sales of the Almanac jumped, and perhaps Aldo Leopold would be pleased to think that his environmental gospel made a few converts.
Our little organization had neither the energy nor the finances to continue, but in its small way the project made the same point about the timeless influence of Aldo Leopold that your article “A Signature on the Land” made in the September issue.
Abbott T. Fenn
Secretary
Vermont Audubon Council
Middlebury, Vt.
Wrong Wheel
Page 34 of the September issue has a picture of “roulette players” taken in Reno in 1921. A roulette wheel is horizontal. The vertical device shown is known as a wheel of fortune, although few fortunes have ever been made on one by players. Proprietors, on the other hand, have done quite well.
C. Stanley Gilliam Sacramento, Calif.
Part of the Mission
Gene Franzen’s July/August “Brush With History” could have been written by me. The chief difference is that my family decided months in advance to attend Apollo 11’s launch.
I was twelve years old and became very involved in the planning of our Florida vacation that year. We could find lodging no closer than Orlando, and we arose at 3:30 A.M. to have plenty of time to drive over to Cape Kennedy. The Holiday Inn we stayed at offered a special “Moon Shot Breakfast” at 4:00 A.M. The restaurant was packed with tourists headed for the Cape.
Like Mr. Franzen, we found that parking along the highway was surprisingly simple before sunup, and among all the observers there was an easy, friendly camaraderie. Our family, along with many others, toured the Kennedy Space Center that afternoon, and like the Frazens we were glued to the television for the remainder of our vacation.
All of us who witnessed Apollo 11’s launch that morning did feel we were a part of the mission. That day stands out as one of the highlights of my life.
Robert G. Reynolds
Memphis, Tenn.
Bad Call
I was able to spot all of the items on the charm bracelet shown on the back cover of your May/June issue except the bosun’s call, and I wondered why you didn’t identify the little silver whistle in the center.
