Speaking up for decency on television

Hooray for you! We all sit around and complain about what we see in

television and movies, but we really don’t know how to do anything

about it. We appreciate your comments this morning in the Daily

Pilot. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

ROBERT E. KLINE

Newport Beach

Steve Smith, I too thought the Super Bowl halftime show was trash

and agree that the supermarket tabloids are going overboard, but

spare me your diatribe about how kids are being ruined by this. If

you are a good parent, your kids will know what has value and what’s

trash. I used to enjoy your column all the time, then most of the

time, and now just some of the time. You’re a good writer, but its

time to extricate yourself from that high moral soapbox and back to

writing the way you can.

GEORGE LAMPINEN

Newport Beach

I am totally in agreement with your article regarding the terrible

taste of the halftime show at the Super Bowl. However, the one

exception I want to take is if people like yourself, who are able to

get word out to people like me, who aren’t so savvy where to go to

express dismay, please do. You state that only a hundred thousand of

you bothered to voice any objection. I would have voiced an objection

if I had known where to go.

I hear that you can logon to websites, you can write the Federal

Communications Commission, you can this, you can that. Very honestly,

I’m not savvy on all of that. I do find it objectionable. I find it

disgusting that not just Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake

participated but that the powers that be for all of these MTV-related

events, whether it be award shows or whatever, they seem to tend to

let them slide. And basically, it’s ghetto. It’s debauchery, and it’s

unpleasant to the viewers. You tend to cringe a bit. They’ve taken

over the line.

If you and publications like the Daily Pilot can make the general

public aware of how to go about expressing our dismay, whether it be

websites or phone numbers we can log on to, whether it be phone

numbers we can call, I’m all for it. I can remember when the John

Wayne Airport had noise abatement problems and there was a number to

call, but I didn’t know about it, but there was a number to call and

say, “Hold it. Planes are too loud, and we’re distressed.”

So thank you for the courtesy of bringing it up. We need to know

how to reach the powers that be to express our dismay, and if I’m in

the dark, I’m expecting there’s a whole ton of us that are in the

dark as well.

JO CAROL HUNTER

Newport Beach

I just wanted to pat the back of Steve Smith for the column Jan. 7

and say I agree whole-heartedly.

GERALD SILSBEE

Newport Beach

I am a mother and a grandmother and I grew up when morals meant

something. Evidently, it doesn’t to this generation. And I am

absolutely offended by all this sex on the television and in the

movies, and I think something should be done about it. This article

that Steve Smith wrote, I think, was a very, very good article.

FRANCIS MADDEN

Corona del Mar