Letters to the Editor

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Public Broadcasting Service


Re: John Stossel’s “It’s Time to Turn Off PBS,” Opinion, August 3, 2005. While I agree there is a place for the kind of consumer reporting that John Stossel supports in his piece, I would argue that commercial television cannot – and will not – provide the quality and variety of programs the Public Broadcasting Service can with its independence from market forces and pressure from advertisers.


PBS provides more than nine hours a day of educational children’s programs and offers independent public affairs and news programming that goes beyond the sensationalism of the “consumer” reporting Mr. Stossel touts.


As Mr. Stossel notes, federal money accounts for about 15% of the public television system’s funding, but we should not walk away from this money as he suggests. First and foremost, public broadcasting is an essential public service in a democracy, like having public libraries when we have bookstores. Second, that 15% is crucial as funding that helps leverage the support of producers, corporate underwriters, and foundations.


A recent Roper survey found that 82% of Americans feel that their tax dollars are well spent on public broadcasting. Don’t they deserve to have a service that uses their public airwaves to offer content that has no other agenda than to educate and inspire them?


LEA SLOAN
Public Broadcasting Service
VP, Media Relations
Alexandria, Va.


Armenian Aid


Re: “Second-Largest Recipients of U.S. Aid, Armenians Fight to Get Ahead,” Michael Mainville, Foreign, August 9, 2005] Armenia has one of the most vibrant and fast-growing economies among the states of the former Soviet Union, yet Michael Mainville claims the country is languishing and its people are fleeing.


Armenia’s gross domestic product has doubled in recent years and emigration has slowed to a trickle. Poverty reduction – which is among President Kocharian’s highest priorities – has fallen by 25% in five years, and the American ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, has said the country is “on the right track.”


Mr. Mainville correctly notes that Congress has increased funding to Armenia over the administration’s request. However, he fails to mention that this aid money helps offset the impact of the Turkish and Azeri blockades of Armenia.


BRYAN ARDOUNY
Executive Director
Armenian Assembly of America
Washington, D.C.


Gotham Taxes


Re: “Spike the Tax Hike,” Nicole Gelinas, Opinion, August 8, 2005. This November, New Yorkers will likely be choosing between Mayor Bloomberg and Fernando Ferrer. Since your own editorial board details Mr. Ferrer’s $1 billion tax hike – on top of his job-killing stock transfer tax – I think I’ll be voting for Mr. Bloomberg.


Nicole Gelinas should also be examining how the city’s economy would fare under the Democrats, since they all have plans to increase the personal income tax on the middle class. I have a strong feeling we’re getting a better deal under Mr. Bloomberg.


KATE SHEAHAN
Manhattan


Racial Profiling


Re: Colbert I. King’s “Profile in Conservative Hypocrisy,” Opinion, August 8, 2005. Condemning as unconstitutional the use of racial profiling in law enforcement fails to note a hypocritical aspect of the support for racial profiling that has been manifested by some political conservatives who grow apoplectic at the prospect of any kind of affirmative action.


Just as Mr. King does in his complaint against the use of race and ethnicity for law enforcement purposes, many critics of affirmative action argue that the Constitution enforces a resolutely colorblind standard for all purposes. In California, that attitude led to the adoption of a state constitutional amendment explicitly forbidding any public program from taking note or account of race for any purpose.


Yet so many of the same critics argue that where law enforcement is concerned, it would be folly, and cannot be against the law, to forbid police from conducting searches that single out people of a particular skin color because empirical data allegedly demonstrates their greater propensity to commit terrorist acts.


Assuming the accuracy of this data, how can it then be impermissible to take into account, in formulating employment and college admission programs, a factor that is at least as certain: that racial minorities simply do not have the same advantages, and do not enjoy the same access to opportunity as other groups?


One can make various arguments against affirmative action, or against its particular manner of implementation, and some of these arguments may have merit. But it is the height of hypocrisy to condemn affirmative action programs for failing to be color-blind in acknowledging the realities that attend the lives of many minority citizens, while simultaneously pushing the employment of law-enforcement procedures that are by design the furthest thing from being race-neutral.


DAVID B. SIMPSON
Tenafly, N.J.



Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use