TODAY'S LETTERS: Watergate Anniversary, O.J. Simpson and Newsroom Cuts

By: E&P Staff This week marked the 35th anniversary of the Watergate break-in and readers had plenty to say about it. E-mails also continued to trickle in about our interview with O.J. Simpson and our special report about newsroom cuts.


Marking the Watergate Anniversary

Slowness in reporting Watergate wasn?t only a result of a slower news cycle. It also was the result of many journalists, including some in the Post newsroom, thinking it was ?just a burglary.? It took more than two years for the full truth to emerge. And for many months, few journalists in that large army of Washington reporters, besides Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and their editors, thought the story was important.

During that time, Americans re-elected Nixon. In other words, from June 1972 until the November 1972 election, not enough information emerged about the case for the American public to see that the burglary was part of a serious assault on the constitution led by the President and his staff.

Perhaps the speed of today?s news environment would have made it more likely that the full story and an understanding of its importance would have been revealed much more quickly. Speed linked with a careful commitment to accuracy can lead to very good reporting. Speed is an enemy only when we lose sight of the essential values of journalism. Otherwise, it can be a great help to the journalistic process and to the public?s need to know, as in this case, as soon as possible.

Betty Medsger


Bob Woodward Reflects on WMDs

Bob Woodward can apologize until he turns green. I will never buy or read anything he ever writes again.

I am an ardent reader and recommend others do the same which many have, by virtue of his continued apologies. He is a loser and adds nothing to society other than being a shill for the most corrupt administration in the history of this country.

Marilyn Garis
Jacksonville, Florida

O.J. Simpson Criticizes the Media

Why would Editor and Publisher print what O.J. Simpson thinks of current events or what O.J. thinks about media coverage? How is O.J. an expert on anything other than getting away with double murder? Why give him the time of day? You are feeding into his attention, he is a psychopath who loves attention and loves hurting people.

Also, why print O.J.'s attacks on crime victims such as Nancy Grace? Nancy Grace is a crime victim and a crime victims advocate. Her boyfriend was brutally shot in the back by a mugger, now she dedicates her time to crime victims.

What a slap in the face to victims rights and crime victims such as Nancy Grace and the victims of O.J. Simpson, to print the rants of a double murderer, who the public would like to see black listed.
Please stop feeding into the psychopaths agenda.

Levi Page

What Gets Lost in Newsroom Cuts?

After reading your article about jobs cuts, larger workloads, coverage cutbacks and more hours spent in the office for the same old pay I wondered if corporations are trying to turn the newspaper business into a franchise type operation they control. Especially for traditional print newspapers with online content I have difficulty finding articles written by a local reporter regardless of which newspaper I read.

Why are nearly all articles posted by online papers written by someone
affiliated with the Associated Press ? Even many of the "local" news coverage articles have a reporter's name followed by (AP). This same article is posted in scores of online newspapers instead of having an article written by someone on the staff of the newspaper. It makes
news written by a real local newspaper reporter difficult to find.

I also noticed that articles written by real local reporters, compared
to AP articles, usually are more insightful and personal not unlike a local family-owned restaurant is compared to McDonald's.

Dave Young
Chandler, Ariz.