The Mail
Actually, I Was on Top
Weinstein is gay ("Perfect Sunshine of Ambient Mind," March 15-21). Well goddamn, that makes perfect sense. I can remember reading the articles by him and not quite getting it. This explains a lot. However, I can hardly believe that he slept through his boyfriend slamming a gigantic hard cock in his ass. Can you? O.K. I know, I'm a little out of bounds there, but can you? Either way it's funny. Ask him if it's really true that he slept through sex. If he says no, then call him a goddamn liar.
As for Mugger ("Homophobia on the Left," March 15-21): This article busted my ass in the first two paragraphs. I don't know why exactly. I found my mind wandering from the below-the-belt comment of the I.Q.s of unionized school teachers to the excellent short program by Olympian Johnny (it's "Johnny" goddamn it, not "John," because he's gay) Weir. Then I began to wonder if Russ was wearing a bow tie. The pondering was halted when I suspected he was the one who slammed the Kennedys in an earlier issue.
Russ are you never happy? You're like the kid with the nicest toys that would never let anyone play with them. Who is this "Sullivan" character that you envy? I never heard of him, but I can bet he's another extreme left or right bullshitter. You Bill O'Reilly/Al Franken extremists are tearing me apart. Where is that fence riding fucking Azi when we need him huh?
James Wes Brown
Not Pressing the Voice
In his column "Faking out the Voice," Steve Weinstein posits that The Village Voice shouldn't be taken to task for Nick Sylvester's deception since "very few media outlets-and weekly newspapers perhaps least of all-have the wherewithal to hire phalanxes of fact checkers."
Developing a crack fact-checking team isn't nearly as difficult as many editors would have readers believe. At many publications (including Philadelphia Weekly, where I supervise the department), the work is done by unpaid interns-budding young journalists eager to learn the business. A fact-checking system keeps reporters and their newspapers honest-something that's essential when the media is besieged upon from all sides, not least of all from within.
Besides being a crucial tool that ensures accuracy on the part of papers like yours and ours, fact-checking is the best possible training for the generation of writers about to become the next journalists. They see firsthand how reporting is done, they retrace seasoned reporters' steps (including calling all sources), and they get a tangible idea of how the nuts and bolts of interviews and documents and research are put together into a final completed story. If more papers would use their resources creatively to use fact-checking to teach young journalists the essential value of precision and truthfulness, we could raise both the standard of the work we're doing and our readers' trust in us.
Jeffrey Barg
Associate Editor, Philadelphia Weekly
Just wanted to say that was a really wise and grown-up piece by Steve Weinstein. Thanks
David Macaray
Steve Weinstein's piece was gracious and without gloating. The Voice has a lot to make up for, but you guys have shown some class in not jumping on the competition when they're down. Good show! Keep up the good writing, too, and you'll be giving the Voice a run for their money.
George Hannahan
'If Jim Goes, I Go!'
If Rainee Stiles doesn't "get" Jim Knipfel ("Put Knipfel Out to Pasture," Letters, March 15-21), that's his (her?) business. But for the rest of us, Knipfel is a long breath of fresh air in a fetid city. Knipfel tells it like it is, and if you can't take it, that's your problem-not his. Jim, keep writing and we'll keep reading.
Park Harrison
Jim Knipfel is a great writer and the main reason why most of us still read the Press. Don't get rid of him, and don't listen to Rainee Stiles. If Knipfel goes, I go!
Anita Santamaria Santucci
Right winger: Bullying not right
Reading Mugger's column ("Paternalism Big and Small," March 1-7) reminded me that I really am of two minds about bullying. Obviously, some of the "zero tolerance" stuff is ridiculous. But speaking from my own long-ago experience, the idea that kids used to settle things among themselves can be bullshit. To be a victim of school bullies is pretty frightening, and can make your whole experience in school dismal. When I was a kid, the teachers were totally ineffectual at managing violence between the students, and approaching them for help about as effective as it would be in prison.
A couple of years ago, I went to a reunion at my elementary school. As a conservative, I found aspects of the current touchy-feely atmosphere a bit comical. But as a kid who used to dread school, I must admit that I would have found the current atmosphere a blessed relief-on a par with walking down 42nd Street in post-Giuliani Manhattan.
M.L.