To the editor:
I am writing to let you know that I think Milton Hollstein's regular column entitled "Media Monitor" is one of the best uses of space in your paper that I have ever seen.Lately, I have been annoyed and disgusted with mass media in America, particularly the television media, and I am glad to see that Mr. Hollstein is willing to work against the corruption of our information lifelines.
The quality of reporting in all mass media is rapidly declining, all in the name of ratings or sales. This is unforgivable. Format changes designed to increase readability are certainly acceptable, but even the written news media have begun to employ useless graphs and "blurbs" to relay "more digestible" tidbits of information to an increasingly illiterate public. In many cases, the direct result is slanted, incomplete reporting.
Also, Mr. Hollstein has the ability to recognize many of the calculated uses of the media by politicians for public relations purposes, which are self-serving and have little to do with real news reporting.
Apparently, experienced politicians are very good at manipulating young, eager reporters for their own purposes by slanting and sensationalizing. Mr. Hollstein is able to call attention to this sort of nonsense from a more objective standpoint without being inflammatory. Rather than making accusations, his style allows the reader to make his own decision.
I applaud the Deseret News for printing Mr. Hollstein's column, and, knowing that the Deseret News is not immune to quality problems, I hope your paper will afford him the latitude to criticize problems in your own paper as freely as he would in other media.
Galen Jackson
West Jordan