STORY ON THATCHER VISIT A JAB AT VMI

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 10, 1992                   TAG: 9202100173
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK H. BRYANT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
STORY ON THATCHER VISIT A JAB AT VMI
THE ROANOKE Times & World-News shows its lack of professional journalism again. Dwayne Yancey's feature on Margaret Thatcher's visit to Lexington (Jan. 25) was an undisguised jab at VMI's admissions policies.
If your intent was to cover the Thatcher lecture as a news event, you certainly failed, and if your intent was to report a newsworthy event in an objective manner, you failed miserably.
The whole "article" was an editorial opinion against VMI's 152-year-old service to the state as an institution which strives to develop young men. The writer tried (and not surprisingly failed) to elicit comments from spectators at the events honoring Thatcher's visit that would be critical of VMI's admissions policy. He also rudely described the crowd as "anglophiles" and "Thatcherites."
There is no irony in the institute's honoring the visit of a famous or accomplished woman. (It's been done before.) Assuming that because VMI is a men's college it is contemptuous of all women, is an insult to VMI - especially to the fine VMI professors and staff members who are women, and to the many other women who believe in character education for young men.
Mrs. Thatcher was one of a series of lecturers, brought to VMI by generous benefactors, to address the cadets as a distinguished leader. Not all of the crowd were necessarily "Thatcherites." Some undoubtedly were open-minded individuals willing to listen to another point of view than their own. Her lecture and her responses to questions posed by cadets were stimulating and worthy of review.
It's a pity your staff writer could not get past his own myopic view of an issue wholly unrelated to the news event he was covering. It's a pity your readers aren't better served by a more professional staff of journalists. Try emulating other papers besides The Washington Post.

Mark H. Bryant is assistant professor of military science at VMI.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB