July 31, 2004

Are Kobe Bryant transcripts crucial?

I've just read the News' July 27 editorial concerning the supposed "First Amendment controversy" surrounding the mistaken release of closed hearing transcripts in the pending Kobe Bryant trial ("Justice Breyer and prior restraint").

Advertisement

My reaction? Disturbed and disgusted.

I remember when journalists were fighting over real issues surrounding First Amendment rights and the "public's right to know," such as the publication of the Pentagon papers. It's embarrassing to see the national press and electronic media stooping so low as to turn a mistake made by a court reporter into a "First Amendment crisis." What are the media thinking?

This isn't a matter of the public needing to know critical information in order to make an intelligent political decision. These are court transcripts of closed hearings covering the private life of a young girl from a small town in Colorado. This was information that the media simply were not allowed to have in the first place. And what will be the result of their publication? A young girl and her family will be embarrassed and publicly vilified.

I think the editors of the Rocky Mountain News, The Denver Post, the Associated Press and the other news agencies involved in this fiasco need to ask themselves whether they can honestly look at themselves in the mirror and say, "Taking this fight to the U.S. Supreme Court is the right thing to do, despite the potential consequences it will have on the pending sexual assault trial and a young girl's life." If the answer is yes, then so be it. Make your stand.

Personally, I couldn't do it.

Journalism is truly in a sad state.

Dan Thomas

Arvada

Policeman fed up with coverage

I have been a police officer in Denver for 12 years and I'm sick of the way these incidents, like the shooting of Frank Lobato, get reported. Why don't the newspapers report when officers put themselves in jeopardy instead of using deadly force?

I've taken a gun from an individual at George Washington High School who was there to shoot a person who fought with his sister. I was shot at in Congress Park and did not shoot back while taking the suspect into custody. I disarmed a distraught kid at Merrill Middle School who barricaded himself behind some desks and threatened staff and the police.

I did not shoot in any of these situations even though I would have been justified and the news media did not report that a good job was done. Amazingly enough the one time I did shoot at someone - who was high on cocaine, beat up his wife and kid, and tried to run me and my fellow officers over with his truck, and then tried to barricade himself in an elderly couple's home - the media reported it.

So if the community activists and newspapers that seem to be directing public policy care and want the facts, maybe they should do some research and quit shooting from the hip.

Bill Stanley

Brighton

Liberal, liberal, liberal, liberal Post

Ah, it's another election year. And time once more for The Denver Post to shed itself of all vestiges of fairness and balance and dignity. Time for its monolithically politically correct staff of reporters, editors and opinion writers to trash anyone to the right of Gail Schoettler.

Time to spin the news to the left, time to paint horns and KKK hoods on Republicans.

Let me give just one brief example (there are countless others):

The July 25 Perspective section contained this "diversity" of opinion columnists: Liberal Walter Cronkite, liberal Neal Pearce, liberal Froma Harrop, liberal Marianne Means, loony liberal Gail Schoettler, liberal Blake Chambliss, liberal Ben Long, liberal Fred Brown, and liberal Ed Quillen (although he unconvincingly tries to deny his label).

There were one or two innocuous, nonpolitical columns. But were there any conservatives? Nope. Well, there is Mallard Fillmore, the brave little duck whom the liberals (those grand champions of diversity) periodically want to silence.

Come to think of it, the wisdom of Mallard Fillmore easily outshines the gloom of the rest of this sorry batch of liberals.

Alan Hobden

Woodland Park

Fox reporting truly is fair, balanced

The problem with readers like Bob Kropfli is, they confuse news reporters with news commentators ("Here's a better way to judge media bias," Talk Back to the Media, July 24).

When it comes to reporting the news, Fox News probably is the most "centrist." On the other hand, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw et al. all lean slightly left of center in their reporting. They also are selective in their reporting in that they tend to give more weight to issues that support their political leanings and less weight to items that are not part of their political agenda.

Fox, on the other hand, reports everything, and then lets the viewers use their own political filter to decide how to interpret the issue.

This is the way reporting was and should be done. News reports should be reports. We need to get away from commentaries disguised as news reports. Fox does report the news in a fair and balanced way. And it does lean slightly to the right in its commentaries. But we need their right leaning in order to balance out all the left leaning already out there.

Thor Johnson

Arvada

Chance of fairness in diet article slim

By the second sentence of its July 20 article, "Scaling back on carbs?," the News had already displayed its bias and let me know I wasn't going to be reading an honest, impartial comparison of two diets.

It's a common tactic to misrepresent a position and then disprove that position based on the misrepresentation.

"I did it too," the author writes, "the Atkins induction phase, two weeks spent inhaling as much butter and bacon as possible."

Low-carb diets do not advocate eating as much fat and protein "as possible."

The Atkins plan specifically dictates portion sizes for both groups, based on gender, height and weight.

If, while on a low-fat diet, the author ate as much rice, pasta or bread "as possible," I'm pretty sure she'd gain weight too.

Additionally, the criticism that Atkins dieters put the weight back on after a successful induction phase is disingenuous; what percentage of low-fat dieters keep that weight off for life?

Andy Schaeffer

Centennial

Unnewsworthy

I opened my July 17 News and was surprised to find, on Page 15A, an article about Sen. John Edward's brother receiving a DUI ("Edwards' brother skipped on DUI").

First, I couldn't figure out why such a story would deserve a place in the newspaper - is it newsworthy in any way, shape or form? And, second, if the News believes that such information is newsworthy, I'm surprised that they would not include the DUI that President Bush received in Maine in 1976, or report the fact that Laura Bush ran a stop sign in 1963, hitting another vehicle and killing its teenage driver. Cherry-picking stories is not the same thing as presenting balanced news and, in fact, hints at other motives.

George Hope

Morrison

Edwards item buried

Nice story about John Edwards' brother wanted on drunk driving charges in Colorado ("Edwards brother skipped on DUI charges," July 17). Where was it, Page 15A?

Now if it had been Dick Cheney's brother, we all know it would have been the banner headline on the front page.

Lynn Stanley

Centennial

Talk about 'Prickly'

Congratulations on Prickly City, the new, more conservative cartoon in the News' "funny pages." Maybe now my conservative son will renew his subscription that he recently canceled in frustration.

Bill Bagwell

Littleton

Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.