THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 14, 1994 TAG: 9406140008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Medium
DATELINE: 940614 LENGTH:
Personal accountability, so long without advocacy, has been all but lost in a host of misguided social programs designed as humanitarian but anti-humanitarian in their consequences. Continued in their present form they will destroy what remains of decency in our nation.
{REST} For whatever reason, editorial page editor John Barnes' detractors fail to understand this. It is hard to believe they are that stupid, leaving a quest for political power as their likely motivation.
Many of us view Mr. Barnes' application of intelligent reasoning to human affairs as a long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel. We eagerly anticipate more of his opinions and wish him a long and prosperous stay in this area.
THOMAS P. THORPE
Virginia Beach, May 18, 1994
I welcome John Barnes to The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star and to the Hampton Roads area, and I apologize for my fellow Virginians who have written to complain about the most positive change to this newspaper. Many of them speak of diversity, yet they know nothing about which they speak.
They complain that the newspaper has ridded itself of such diversification of viewpoints with the addition of Mr. Barnes. How foolish! If anything, the newspaper has increased it's diversity in views by finally adding a point of view other than the leftist editorials found in the news sections.
If it's liberalism that readers want, I suggest they read Newsweek, Time, People and U.S. News & World Report, or watch their choice of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN or MTV. And when they've had enough left-wing propaganda, I invite them to turn to this newspaper's op-ed page for a different (i.e., diverse) point of view.
WILLIAM E. ALLMOND IV
Franklin, June 1, 1994
David B. Lawrence Jr. is wrong (``No editorial Pulitzers ahead,'' letter, May 24). The citizens who ``accepted the editorial policies'' of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star were generally those who agree with the paternalist-statist-socialist leanings of editorial page editor John Barnes' predecessors. The rest of us just took the paper for the sports page and local news and subscribed to The Wall Street Journal for truth in reporting.
Prior to Mr. Barnes' appointment, the newspaper was nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. I hope that Mr. Barnes will remake our newspaper into one that reports news rather than propagandizes for either party.
E. K. GREGORY
Virginia Beach, May 24, 1994
How sweet it was to return from Albany and discover the Virginia Pravda had become the Conservative Chronicle!
How gratifying to note the whining, whimpering sanctimonies from leftist readers calling for editorial balance and objectivity; where were they when tradition-bashing liberal polemics rained all over the commentary section - and poured on Sunday?
One thing about liberals: They write much more than conservatives. By sheer firepower of their verbiage - ludicrous though it is - they spun an illusion that Nixon's silent majority could be slandered with impunity, yet would masochistically buy the paper that slandered them.
At long last comes a courageous journalist to redeem the afflicted.
ALBERT BERKOWITZ
Virginia Beach, May 29, 1994
by CNB