Networks’ Treatment of Women, Conservatives

Re “Since When Does Conflict Turn Off the Networks?” Commentary, Dec. 3: The real “crime” in this controversy is that any church has to run an ad saying that it welcomes all just as Jesus did. Those who call themselves “Christians” profess to follow the way of the Christ. There is nothing in the entire life of Jesus that suggests that he excluded anyone from his love for any reason. He loved and welcomed all. The United Church of Christ welcome does the same; that is Christianity at its best and most basic.

David Cavanaugh

Long Beach

*

Margaret Carlson’s Dec. 2 commentary, “When the Job Stinks, a Woman Gets It,” is right on! I’ve anchored daily news in California’s Central Valley for 28 years and watched us ladies plow the fields of broadcast journalism with our strengths and weaknesses. Yes, we can write, report and anchor backward in high heels, but the guys have that strong advantage of the public’s forgiveness in the aging process. In fact, the public is just fine with “distinguished” older anchormen.

Network executives? Well, they fall into the same category as their men on the anchor desk. I’m looking forward to the gurgling sound in the tar pits!

Nancy Osborne

Fresno

*

In his Dec. 1 commentary, “Mad as Hell? Not at the Top,” former network news correspondent Marvin Kalb claims that the most “troublesome and insidious” problem facing TV news comes from “resurgent conservative values that appear to be stifling editorial courage in the newsroom.” Kalb appears to be implying not only that conservative values are inherently malevolent but saying that anti-conservative editorializing is “courageous,” while pro-conservative editorializing is sinister.

If Kalb is truly interested in examining why the big three networks are losing out to such “right-tilting” cable news entities as Fox, he need look no further than the sentiments expressed in his own Op-Ed. The results of the last election suggest that a sizable portion of the American electorate -- “perhaps even a majority” -- are conservative on at least some issues. Why would these Americans choose to watch newscasts run by people who call their values “insidious”? If I’ve ever seen anything that gives credence to the notion that the mainstream media have a liberal bias, it is Kalb’s Op-Ed.

David Edomer

El Segundo