Letters 

In a word, hilarious. After reading "Weapons of Mass Stupidity" (June 4), I am really not sure if Hal Crowther's "frothing at the mouth" diatribe against the Fox News Channel was satirical or not. Mr. Crowther, please go back about 10 years and look at the pass that Bill Clinton was given by CNN and most of the major news networks. They did not call him the Teflon president for nothing. I am sure that you were just as blindly supportive of his presidency as you are wholly against Mr. Bush's. Lies are lies, regardless of political party affiliation.

I find that Fox News does beat the drum loud for the Republican side, however CNN and ABC more than make up the cheering section for the Democrat side. I think most learned people will look at both sides of an issue and make up their own minds. It is just lazy journalism for Mr. Crowther to sit upon his soapbox and look down his nose at those that do not share his worldview. His extreme is just as repugnant as the opposite.

-- Michael Hicks, Concord

American Jacobins

Hal Crowther's article on Bush and Fox news is one of the best pieces I've read in some time. He managed to capture my feelings 100 percent. It is re-assuring to know there are still real Americans who refuse to be cowed by the tyranny of stupidity we are currently living under. Fox News makes the Bush war mongers seem like legion, yet I have a hard time finding anyone who will strongly defend them in one on one debate (these guys despise fair debates). We are living under the influence of phony quick time polls that tell us how we are supposed to feel about every issue. Fox news and talk radio are the American Jacobins, ideological enforcers for the regime whose job is to intimidate all dissenters.

-- Andy Gunn, Plainview, NY

Hal The Twisted Liberal

Mr. Crowther, like most liberals, embraces free thought only as long as that free thought results in one arriving at the proper politically correct conclusions. With regard to Iraq, Bush- and America-hating liberals ignore the mass graves and the growing evidence that a WMD program was in place. Prior to the war liberals whined that another Vietnam was coming and dysfunctional celebs rallied against America while our young men and women were on the field of battle.

As the war in Iraq drew to a close, CNN confessed to spinning stories in favor of Saddam to "protect" their field reporters, openly admitting that this may be responsible for more than a few deaths. Add to this the current farce that's playing out at The New York Times and finish off with a helping of the editor of the Los Angeles Times asserting that he will no longer tolerate a liberal bias at his newspaper.

When watching Fox News I see balanced no-spin reporting and commentary that strives more than any other media source to present all sides to any given story. If you want to see bias, all one needs to do is to pick up an LA or New York Times, or, for that matter, any issue of Creative Loafing. Liberalism has made America stupid long enough. And while the last lying liberal was in the White House getting serviced by an intern, terrorists were already planning 9-11.

-- Kelly Boatright, Charlotte

Lucy Has 'Splainin' To Do

The interment of Japanese citizens in the US during World War Two, while regrettable from today's perspective, is in no way commensurate with the acts of the Nazis, especially their acts against the Jews ("America the Dutiful," by Lucy Perkins, May 28).

The idea of equating the two is at best insensitive and at worst an irresponsible twisting of facts. It is an affront to the memories of six million people that perished under the Nazis. An apology is in order, in my opinion.

-- John Kurti, Cornelius

Fresh Beats Free

"Dairy Dilemma," the Rev. Christopher Cole's letter to CL (May 28), employs the same sort of myopia I often see in pseudo-libertarians. While I agree that federal price supports distort the milk market, I'm unsure that a free-market approach would do anything appreciable to actually help anyone, consumer or producer. True, taxes would be lower, and I agree that free markets inside the US would be fairer. I am unable to discern whether the author felt there was not enough milk on the market, too much milk, prices too high, or prices too low.

I know one thing: I was fortunate enough to have actual producing dairies nearby each town I lived in, in Florida, Texas, and Ohio, and it was only when I moved to Charlotte that I found the milk a totally alien, stale, unfresh commodity produced far away and dealt with like an interstate industrial operation rather than a local, fresh product. If I have to be taxed, and I was allowed to actually vote on the issue, I would choose to spend a tiny bit to actually drink fresh, locally produced, sanitary, and uncontaminated milk. The irony is that I really do support free markets. I just wish these dumb consumers would wise up and spend their money like I would! They're screwing up the directions the market should go automatically! Bad consumers!