TUESDAY'S LETTERS: Mitchell and Edsall, Cohen and Iraq, Web Video

By: E&P Staff In today's letters, a reader disagrees with Greg Mitchell's column on New York Times columnist Tom Edsall, another thinks that Web video is not the future of news, and a response to Richard Cohen's defense of his Iraq war columns.

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Mitchell, Edsall and the Election

Greg Mitchell's critique of Thomas Edsall will not do. ...

If Mitchell thinks the 2006 elections were a result of anything besides scandals and the Iraq war, he should give better reasons that he does for thinking so, especially considering the spanking received in referenda for causes supported by Democrats, either overtly or covertly, from affirmative action (in Michigan, a blue state) to liberality on illegal immigration (Arizona, which has a liberal Democratic female governor) to gay marriage (one issue on which there appears to be a nationwide consensus).

Any writer who is negative about the Democratic Party's long-term prospects is going to get rough treatment from some of the Democratic Party's true believers in the media, which unfortunately includes the staff of E&P. It was not flattering to Greg Mitchell that his sarcastic comments about John Tierney were obviously driven by Tierney's politics (Maureen Dowd, let alone Bob Herbert, was never held to the standards applied to Tierney), and that Mitchell, unlike Thomas Edsall, remains unwilling to state his own politics straight out as a form of truth-in-labeling. Mitchell's own political sympathies make his complaints about Edsall's acknowledgement that most reporters lean instinctively to the left in their vocabulary, narrative, and stereotypes of American politics a bit lame; the critics of this obvious piece of American political furniture are inevitably on the left themselves. I'm sure that in spite of considerable evidence to the contrary, hard-core Democrats believe their party has absolute truth and virtue on its side; for some people, politics truly has become a religion. Edsall is interesting and credible because he is willing to come to conclusions he doesn't personally like. This is a test E&P invariably fails.

Mark Richard
Columbus, Ohio

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Outing's Column and Web Video

Steve Outing's suggestions regarding how e-papers could better serve their readers are valuable -- except for the first: more video. The major problem with video is "time" -- it takes a lot longer (about four-to-six times longer!) to receive information by video and sound than through reading text.

Most news readers on the internet want the highest "info received/time used" ratio possible; lots of video undercuts the very reason that they are on the Internet for their news and not in front of the TV set. Perhaps his recommendation is appropriate for lowbrow or populistic journalism, but for the classy "elite" news providers with readers who don't have the time to waste on five minute video clips, his suggestion here is off the mark.

Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig
Chairman, Dept. of Political Studies
Head, Public Communications Program
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat Gan, Israel

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Cohen's Curious Iraq Excuses

Didn't anyone besides me find it odd that in his column, Richard Cohen shared responsibility for his views among 4 different versions of himself?

At this point most people have noticed that "pundit" rhymes with "nitwit," but this transparently irresponsible gambit seems to me to be precedent-breaking. Now opinionators can quit saying "I didn't actually say that," and "I didn't actually mean that," and can go straight to saying, "It wasn't me who said that. I mean, not the current version of me. The one who said that has left the building." It's perfect -- a way of always being right, even when you're wrong.

Louise Kosta

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An Open Comment to Bush & Hadley on Civil Wars and Pride

Civil war: a war between political factions or regions within the same country.

"It is what it is," according to Steven Hadley is appalling. Mr. Hadley, wake up and smell the coffee! Your fantasy in Iraq is costing the lives and future of thousands of Iraqis and Americans alike, while you live in the Beltway with your head in the sand. And, Mr. Bush, perhaps you could take this to heart:

Pride: a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

David Traub
Lakeville, Minn.