THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 31, 1995 TAG: 9505270027
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
As a long-time newspaper junkie, dependent upon The Virginian-Pilot for my daily fix, I have for years resisted a burning desire to write protesting your biased, slanted presentation of news, but I never could come up with just the right example of blatant bias, or editorial ineffeciency to prove my point. However, on May 20, you presented this reader with a display of bias and incompitence demanding review.
On the day after the Senate unanamously voted against the president's budget, you people chose to feature this story on page five above a mattress advertisement.
And so what did you put on the first page center, in color: a smart aleck, meaningless, biased item about a Nixon postage stamp, of absolutely no news value. This silly article served no purpose except to ridicule the late Mr. Nixon in an atttmpet to make Republicans look bad, and to occupy the front page space that should have dealt with the Clinton budget defeat, unarguably the most important news story of that day.
Your cavalier handling of this story is either an indication of your amateurish operation or your aggressive bias against conservatives and Republicans. This Senate vote was perhaps one of the most important and telling vote of the year, and your boys decide to downplay it.
TOM CROXSON
Onley, Va., May 22, 1995 by CNB