Dear Editor:

Media critic Jason Salzman (in June 23 issue of The Observer) argues it's not the print media, but the electronic media that represent our press problems. If Salzman, a media reformer lacks understanding, God help us.

Many papers - thankfully, not The Observer - like television, obsess over a runaway bride or crime reports while abdicating responsibility to scrutinize issues. Is it true, for example, that fatalities are five times higher in Iraq than the Pentagon admits? The environment, global warming, the economy, social issues, science, population and immigration receive short-shrift in deference to celebrity reports, trivia and entertainment. The media - print and electronic - depict us as a far-right, extremist, evangelical nation we are not. They ignore our being the third fastest growing nation and the environmental ramifications - national and international - that represents. They cause critical issues to disappear from the national dialog. They depict a president, not elected the first time, barely elected the second, as having a mandate he lacks.

We were treated to months of "in depth" reporting on Clinton's sexual escapades, but a president can lie us into war - an impeachable offense - and the media silence is deafening.

Our founders protected the press never dreaming that reporters would voluntarily give up rights that reporters elsewhere die for.

The Internet as a news source costs us the cohesion that the national media once provided. We have reporters unable to discern between news and opinion; unaware - or uncaring - that reporters who pitch products de stroy their new agency's credibility.

Perhaps most tragically, journalism that fully informs and allows news consumers to draw their own conclusions has largely disappeared as news is depicted from only the left or only the right.

Sincerely,

Kathleene Parker