Letters to the Editor

Away from New York, I cannot keep up with the Sun, much to my regret. But I recently came across an opinion piece written in your pages some weeks ago by Frank Calzon that made references to Edward Murrow while discussing an interesting, and disheartening, affair involving the Miami Herald [Oped, “Of Murrow and Marti,” October 4, 2006].This was an excellent piece, one that sticks in my mind not only because I am interested in Cuba and unhappy at the shallow and inadequate coverage this country receives in most of our press, but also because I find Mr. Calzon’s allusions to Murrow altogether apt: were there more journalists like him, coverage of Cuban — and other — matters would be better. But of course, it is a sentimental mistake to think the past was somehow better than the present. Murrow stood out then just as a journalist like Murrow would stand out today. Anyway, I think Mr. Calzon made a slight error in giving Murrow credit for the downfall of Senator McCarthy. Not to take anything away from Murrow, but it was really the senator’s gross attack on the Army and the subsequent Army-McCarthy hearings, which were broadcast live in a kind of pre-C-Span show, that brought him down.