LETTERS: Readers Choose Sides On Kristof vs. O'Reilly Battle

By: Jay DeFoore In today's installment of Letters, we hear from a retired 747 pilot who points out the real threat to our nation's airlines, plus readers choose sides in the simmering feud between New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and FOX News host Bill O'Reilly.


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The Real Threat to the Nation's Airlines

Re: Fact Checking the Feds in Airport Shooting

I agree with the thrust of your article, but I am disappointed that you didn?t do more fact checking yourself. Was Mr. Alpizar shot on a jetway outside of the plane while it was at the gate? If so, did the Air Marshals have jurisdiction there? If the plane was on the ground at the gate, there was little chance that it could have been used in a 9/11-style attack. If the person truly had a bomb, why didn?t he detonate it in the back of the plane where he could have killed more people? The plane had just flown in, why didn?t he detonate his ?bomb? while the plane was still in the air?

Have you questioned the training that the Air Marshals receive? It seems to me that they act more like Pavlov?s dog than they do as thinking human beings. Then, of course, if you want to see evil you will see evil.

A 9/11-style attack is very unlikely anymore. The terrorists knew that the cockpit doors could be easily opened and that the pilots did not carry weapons. Today, the doors are bullet proof and some pilots are armed and most importantly, the passengers will resist, and even kill anyone who tries to take over a plane. The truth is that we don?t need Air Marshals on planes at all. The real threat is possibility of bombs in luggage.

John Campbell
Retired 747-400 Captain

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Airport Murder

You are right, we must hold these air marshals down. Before they shoot anyone, they should be required to ask a suspect if they are bi-polar, having a low blood sugar attack, were picked on as a child or shunned by society.

Being a trial lawyer for 41 years I learned that witnesses will tell different stories. Most trials are swearing contests.

If you read the mainstream press you will get a story slanted about ninety degrees to the left of George McGovern. When the press gets through with this, it will be President Bush who pulled the trigger.

Dean Johnson
Sebring, Fla.

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Kudos for Fact Checking

Kudos to E&P and columnist James Bovard for discussing the bogus story surrounding the killing of Rigoberto Alpizar. It's good to see one major news outlet that isn't afraid to do its job. It's as if Bovard read my mind, or vice versa. With this latest effort and the expose earlier this year on Hiroshima, E&P is leading the way as both a high-quality industry magazine and a warrior for truth in news.

Jeremy Huss

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Note to Bush: Don't Open the Door to Future Lawlessness

Re: Newspaper Editorials Hit Back after Bush Criticizes Spy Story

The greatest secular asset this country has is its constitutional stability.

Economic and military superiority may be transitory or not, but the law is a rock to which everyone can cling, no matter what storms may come, even the storms of terrorism.

Without the law, dependable and equal in use to everyone, the immense power of this country may be left lying about for anyone to seize for his own purposes.

The present executive authority may be law-abiding and responsible by its own lights, but it may have established precedents for future lawlessness.

God forbid!

Pavel Chichikov
Washington, D.C.

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Kristof vs. O'Reilly

Re: Nicholas Kristof/Bill O'Reilly Feud Heats Up

Double and triple cheers for Nicholas Kristof for calling out O'Reilly. Keep up the great work!

Happy Holidays!

Mark Panni

Ed's Note: Mark, you'd better be careful with those "Holiday" cheers. O'Reilly might come after you for taking the Christ out of Christmas.

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More on Kristof/O'Reilly Debate

I hope Kristof has the courage to go on The Factor for a real face to face debate. But I won't hold me breath.

Mich Windsor
Maui, Hawaii

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Doug Bandow Sacked, But What About Novak, Sun-Times?

Re: Copley Axes Bandow's Column in Payola Scandal

Congratulations on your principled position regarding the sacking of Mr. Bandow. Cato, indeed. Would that the Chicago Sun-Times find the same morals in connection with the treason of Robert Novak.

Hank Browne
Chicago, Ill.

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The Non-Profit Ideal

Re: Newspaper Saved! Newspaper Saved! Read All About It!

I read Joe Mathewson's article with interest, as a former small weekly newspaper editor. The not-for-profit arrangement he describes is very much like the company I used to work for, Journal Publishing in Tupelo, Mississippi. The parent company, Journal Publishing, is owned by a community oriented non-profit, CREATE. Properties include a regional daily, The North Mississippi Daily Journal, six area weeklies and a commercial real estate company. All profits are paid to CREATE, which then funds grant programs in the counties in the counties covered by the newspapers.

I don't know all the particulars about the tax-exempt status of Journal Publishing as opposed to CREATE (I was just a little cog in the machinery), so I don't know how similar the structure was to the St. Petersburg Times, mentioned in the article's correction. I do know that I came to belie this to be an ideal way to structure a newspaper company, where making money was important, but, in theory, was secondary to serving the community, in part with good community news coverage. It has the added bonus of generating good PR within the community. Our company was big on having its local newspaper personnel photographed passing out grant checks to community organizations.

I don't know how this would work on a large, possibly national scale, but I've seen the potential the idea has in practice, and though I am no longer in the newspaper business, I feel it is the cornerstone for quality journalism. I hope there will be a push for the changes you mentioned. Even if there is not, I think it would be a shot in the arm for the industry to look at what they can do under the current laws concerning nonprofit.

Joseph R. Gurner
Water Valley, Miss.


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Electric Companies Could Power Up Journalism

Re: Investigative Journalism: Will It Survive?

I think having more ISPs entering the market could eventually be a happy, long-desired turning point for web journalism. Comcast and Verizon have already made it clear that they intend to compete by offering exclusive content. Which means news providers can market their content to ISPs, then the ISPs can turnaround and charge the subscribers.

When looking at who is going to provide your web service, if you only get the local newspaper's web site from one of them, would that be a factor on who you selected and how much you were willing to pay? It would have weight, I believe.

As cable and the web get closer together, the business models could move closer together. Charging for content is what is done on cable TV now, but not the web. Your cable provider has to pay for the Weather Channel, but the ISP doesn't have to pay to offer Weather.com.

Local news on the web has value. Everyone has the stats to prove it. I certainly saw it when I was marketing (to the Associated Press) a service that automatically built contextual links on breaking news. AP (and I) had trouble getting paid for the value we were adding and I'm now back working as a local journalist.

I hope that with consumers being offered several sources onto the web, the work of journalists might have a dollar value assigned to it.

I hope. I've been wrong before. See what your sources think.

Charles Batchelor

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I'm happy, Amazed, and Perplexed!

I remember the days ('70s) when I used to sell display advertising for the Los Angeles Times. I can still recall reading Editor & Publisher back in those days for its coverage of the American newspaper industry, newspaper readership analysis and a steady stream of articles pointing out that cable TV could never compete with newspapers. E&P was, in a word (two words, actually), parochial and (certainly to someone outside the industry) boring.

Things have obviously changed. Big time. For the past couple of years E&P has been a burning voice of conscience for the American newspaper establishment. E&P has time after time challenged the reporting practices, reliability, honesty and accuracy of the biggest players in the industry. This is especially significant because *no one else* in the industry has been doing it. Criticism of American reporting practices, especially among the major newspapers, has been marginalized. E&P is the most credible institution in the industry to stand up and point out the uncomfortable truth about America's reporting on issues such as the Iraq War, and most recent in your article "Fact Checking the Feds in Airport Shooting," abuses of law enforcement in the name of national security.

Your article (and E&P's courageous coverage) is what causes me to be amazed and happy.

What causes me to be perplexed is how E&P has the guts to nibble the hand of the industry it represents. It is difficult to imagine that the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, for example, have been sending large numbers of congratulatory missives to E&P. :)

Keep up the good work. Please.

Steven D. Hohensee
Easton, Kan.

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In Praise of David Gregory

Where Can I Write David Gregory and thank him for trying to do the people's work? If there's a shining star in the mess that is the White House Press Corps, it's David Gregory and his courageous and persistent questioning of those who would obfuscate and evade (as if you don't know who that is). I would like to write and think him for trying to do the right thing.

Cynthia G. Bazinet
Holden, Mass.

Ed's Note: David Gregory's "Nightly News" team can be reached at nightly@nbc.com.