
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994                    TAG: 9406030897 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A16    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: Short 
DATELINE: 940603                                 LENGTH:

WANT PRESS RENAISSANCE

{LEAD} Commenting to friends on the politically conservative cast to editorial opinion published throughout many recent weeks, the appointment of John Barnes still leaves unanswered one great question: Did those editorials presage his coming or were they no more than coincidence?

I will quibble just a bit with his claim of readers turning to editorial pages for new information on a topic. Information is what I expect will be found in published reportage of events - whether social, political, financial or of general interest. The use of that information to formulate editorial opinion is what I expect to find under the editorial banner. (And may the twain never meet again.)

{REST} If Mr. Barnes can maintain both a distinctive and consistent point of view, perhaps some of us may live to experience a renaissance of the daily press. To hold in one's hand a newspaper infinitely better than those he described of an earlier day and the propaganda sheets foisted upon present-day readers by staff reporters anxious to express their convictions as ``news'' in their coverage of events would be indeed welcome.

ERNEST F. BREDE

Chesapeake, May 8, 1994

by CNB