THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407160023
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Guy Friddell managed to ``put down'' Ollie North nine times in his short column on June 30 (``Robb, dents and all, bangs out best performance in debate''). Count 'em. Quite a record for short-term subsidized bias!
But first, Mr. Friddell's crowning of Senator Robb as the ``best performer'' in the Larry King-sponsored TV debate on June 28 is his own opinion. Mine is that Ollie North was the ``best performer'' by far: sensible, unflappable and courteous as a scrapper against the odds, 4 to 1, including Larry King.
Mr. Friddell's pejorative terms against North included: ``skunk works'' (twice), ``sloppy scam,'' ``ignoring a ban on props,'' ``North crowed to King,'' ``North folded,'' ``North mumbled,'' ``Wilder reprimanded North'' and ``ruse to escape.''
Guy Friddell bashes Ollie North at every pretext. As a regular columnist, he can denigrate at will, often with half-truths. Ordinary mortals like me are limited to answer once every six months, according to your letters policy.
Friddell and other North bashers are forgetting three important points: (1) Virginia Republicans have spoken; they chose North. (2) Insults to North are insults to Virginia Republicans. And (3) the more you bash North, the stronger he grows.
ANNE S. EVANS
Norfolk, June 30, 1994 by CNB