Even media conservatives wrongly presume Trump’s guilt
Mona Charen’s “Trump played by Kim at Summit” (Opinion, June 17) should be “Media played by Trump at summit.” For three years, Trump’s failed to meet the media’s cookie-cutter narrative of how a president (and presidential candidate) should act. Meanwhile he’s played the media so many times that even conservative-leaning columnists and pundits are at their wits’ end, often joining progressives to attack Trump. Their anti-Trump sentiment has them condemning him for his glowing, public acceptance of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ironically even to the point of unwittingly praising Kim themselves as having outsmarted Trump. And Charen’s attempt at dressing-down and second-guessing Trump makes it tough to tell whether it’s she or Trump who is more pompous. Though the actual verdict on the Kim negotiations is still out, the media jury has (once again) prematurely found Trump guilty.
GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA
Story on court ruling was not slanted Left
Regarding the letter, “Liberal media slants important court ruling” (Readers Write, June 17), the writer is upset that the “liberal media” has described the Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling as “narrow,” believing the word is a “slanted” and deceptive term and wondering how a 7-2 decision could be described as narrow. Had he read the articles bearing those headlines, he would have learned “narrow” was not used to describe the closeness of the votes on the ruling, but rather, the applicability of the ruling. The court itself uses that term in its decision. It was a “narrow” decision because it was limited only to this specific situation and cannot act as a precedent for other similar cases in the future. There is no dishonesty in the reporting, though there is a lack of understanding among many readers who fail to read before writing letters.
CHRIS JONES, CONYERS
‘Law is the law’ should apply on immigration
In the letter “Story shows value of Immigrants” (Readers Write, June 15), the writer has missed the basic point about the immigration problem. It’s not that we don’t want immigrants in this country; it’s just that we want them to enter legally. “The law is the law.” Those words rang especially clear to me and about 11,000 of my fellow air traffic controllers from then-President Ronald Reagan when my union, PATCO, illegally went on strike in August 1981. After 16 years of being banned from reapplying for our jobs, the ban was finally lifted. Only a very small minority of the controllers were ever able to get their jobs back. I was one of them. “The Law is the Law.” It rings as clear to me today as it did back in 1981 and should ring just as clear to anyone trying to enter this country illegally. Make them wait 16 years, just like me.
KEN HEWITT, CUMMING
Remembering dad’s view of democracy’s fragility
Last Father’s Day, I paid tribute to my father, who died of a heart attack 40 years ago. My father was a lifelong patriot. He served in the Pacific during World War II. Having fought fascism overseas, my father went on to speak out against homegrown autocrats, from Douglas MacArthur to Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn to Richard Nixon and his enemies list. My father taught English. He thought good writing should be simple, transparent and logical, like Lincoln’s speeches. He believed politicians who used murky language were trying to con us, and that those who fell for the con were guilty of the cardinal sin of intellectual laziness. My father could be memorably profane. He would have had choice words for today’s “sunshine patriots” whose conspiracy theories and distortions of American history are jeopardizing the fragile democracy he risked his life to defend.
STEVE BABB, LAWRENCEVILLE
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