My idols in the broadcast news business where people such as Eric Sevareid, Daniel Schorr, Walter Cronkite, and the granddaddy of them all, Edward R. Murrow.

During the time I was at KORD, Richard Nixon was president, and I had plenty of opinions about him. But my job was such that I didn't have an opportunity to voice them. But it was unnecessary, because other newsmen and commentators such as Eric Sevaried and others had plenty to say.

GfS apparently does not know the distinction between NEWS and EDITORIAL COMMENT. News deals with facts and answers the question, "what happened?" Commentary tries to ennunciate someone's opinion of why it happened, who's doing what to whom, and why are they doing it?

The six o'clock news on any of the "Big Three," ABC, CBS, and NBC, report the news. What events took place during the day. There may be a segment in the program for commentary, but that's always specified as "editorial opinion."

Fox News, on the other hand, does not separate news from opinion, and their programming is almost entirely opinion. They are anything but "fair and balanced."

I think Goofy reveals a great deal about himself with his allegations about my activities as a news man. He's not painting anywhere near an accurate picture of what a news man or even a news director's options are. They are required to follow the policies of the station. If you don't like the policy, don't work there. And the station where I worked as news director did not HAVE a political policy. Not that we didn't have opinions, but we had to keep them to ourselves.

If Goofball went to work as a newsman, assuming he could speak good English in general, speak standard American English (pronunciation), had a good, listenable voice, could write cohesive, grammatically correct sentences, had a fierce dedication to presenting the facts, and kept his opinions to himself unless assigned to do an opinion piece (which would be vetted first by the station manager or others in authority), then he might be allowed in the building.

But with what HE seems to think a newsman can get away with, he'd get his ass kicked out the door on the first day!

I think that in these threads, with his wild, imaginative, and denigrating fictions about various people about whom he knows nothing, he has more that graphically demonstrated his "fierce dedication to presenting the facts."

Don Firth