WEDNESDAY'S LETTERS: 'Red' Ned Lamont, SPJ and Santa Barbara

By: E&P Staff In today's letters, readers respond to Greg Mitchell's column on the branding of Ned Lamont as a Marxist by a Waterbury, Conn., paper, and a former top reporter praises SPJ for giving awards to the Santa Barbara News-Press staffers who walked out in the recent controversy.


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Red Menace

While I do not debate Lamont and his family associations, perhaps you should research and write about the Bush Family and their connections to Arabs and Muslims and oil. And how about the Clintons and their connections to the mob and communism? Doesn't Joe [Lieberman] have an Israeli connection?

Somebody better start making sense of what is going on in this country or we will all live under communist or Islamic rule. ... I do not like either way.

Liz Shepherd
Columbia, S.C.



If there's one thing that makes the parasitic "top drawer" livid, it's one of their own betraying their unjustifiable privilege and entitlement.

The only thing that gets them angrier is when a plebe like Clinton captures the gold and has a successful run.

The Communist label is really laughable especially when you consider how much corporate welfare this administration has generated. Free market capitalists, my Aunt Fanny.

I think Lamont can expect a lot more of the same from the same. I'm sorry he apologized for the "slime/evil" remark. I hope he used had the good sense to use his apology as an educational opportunity.

Carol Davidek-Waller
Kirkland, Wash.



I loved your take on what the Waterbury "paper" said about Lamont. This is, of course, the same garbage that Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, and their ilk have been spewing for the last several weeks. This is what passes for discourse in the Republican party of the new century (although it is not limited to this decade; all of these clowns got their start lying about Clinton) and it is why, I fervently hope, they will lose power for many decades to come.

I actually started out in politics working for Weicker against Lieberman. I heard the ad, "Lowell Weicker: Too Liberal for Connecticut" and marched into the Weicker HQ and volunteered to do whatever they needed, mainly phone and data-entry work. I even changed my registration to Republican briefly. It was that dirty, underhanded method of campaigning, while coming off as folksy and everyone's grandfather, that got me about Lieberman. He stopped representing the interests of his constituents years ago, and now he is paying for it. I think the national press has made way too much out of this; it's not an ideological purity or anti-war thing, it's getting rid of a guy who just will not listen to his own voters.

E&P has become a must-read for me lately. Please keep up the good work.

Pete Hisey
Chicago, Ill.



I don't know the Waterbury paper, but I agree that most journalists today are socialists or at least sympathize with socialism and communism. It's astonishing to me that [Greg Mitchell finds] these types of criticisms outrageous.

Scott A. Osterhaus
Chicago , Ill.



I read your article and did not notice any repudiation of the political leanings of the Lamont family. Why did you avoid commenting on the those points? I suspect they are true ... the family consists of socialists and Stalin lovers. Hmm ... I understand. For you to comment would require the truth and you don't want to denigrate a liberal like yourself. Well it must make you proud to hide facts from the readers of the rag you represent. Stand proud ... you fraud.

Joseph Plumitallo


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On SPJ's Awards for the Santa Barbara Journalists

I think SPJ did the right thing in giving these awards. I was a reporter, editor, or columnist for more than 45 years, including 26 years at The Washington Post and have written eight books, one of them on reporting. I have lived in the Santa Barbara area since 1990 and closely followed the developments at the Santa Barbara News-Press. There are at least two sides to every story, but the fact that the publisher of the newspaper has declined to answer the specific ethical violations of which she is accused and has instead attacked the people who have resigned suggests she doesn't have a case.

It took considerable courage for these people to do what they did, for they are not men and women of means. Your coverage of the controversy is appreciated. ...

Lou Cannon
Summerland, Calif.