Letters

In a July 5 article in the Investor's Business Daily, Michael Fumento wrote (referring to the silicone scandal), "The lawyers never had science on their side, but they had something better. For years, almost all reporters ignored scientists and scientific data in favor of sensationalism. Many stories, print and broadcast, really did talk of 'ticking time bombs.'" Ms. Kolker and the Houston Press fit the description. Sensationalism sells! Joe Jamail sells! Judicial system integrity be damned! The public be damned!

Ray E. Dittmar
Houston

Messing With Melissa
I thought Scott Verbout, author of your story on Melissa Etheridge ["Come to Her Window," July 6] might find it amusing to know that in Rolling Stone's 1989 critics poll (as opposed to readers poll), the Rolling Stone staffers who decide on these matters voted Melissa Etheridge worst female musician!! Has she and her music really changed that much? Funny what a multimillion-dollar publicity/PR blitz can do.

I also sleep better now after reading in that recent Rolling Stone article that Melissa and Ellen DeGeneres and Elton John and Jeff Goldblum, etc. are all "chums." Five will get you ten that these folks wouldn't give her the time of day if she didn't have a bunch of gold and platinum albums.

Name Withheld
Houston

Correction
In the July 13 story "The Senator Who Blew Himself Up," state District Judge Lamar McCorkle was incorrectly identified as one of the Harris County judges who have made state Senator John Whitmire especially welcome in their courts by granting him ad litem lawyer appointments.