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Praised and Slammed

February 4, 2001

Dear Editor,

I'm truly impressed with the job you're doing. Whenever I need local news you have been the place I turn to. Your articles are comprehensive and detailed.

I have a better understanding of my community because of you. I check in at least twice a week. Keep up the good work!

Aaron Speiser

February 2, 2001

Dear Editor,

Teresa Rochester has done a great job on the Pico Neighborhood series. I wish the news you're reporting were more positive, but who knows? Who knows, eh? Something good could come of it.

Thanks for your work,

Mar Preston
Santa Monica

February 1, 2001

Dear Editor,

I have read your "racially" loaded and full of prejudice article on the Pico Neighborhood. It is incredulous that in the 21st century we are going to have to put up with this lightweight form of "yellow journalism" with its total lack of knowledge of the history of this neighborhood and its many, many accomplishments and many accomplished neighbors.

In fact, this neighborhood with all of the many socioeconomic blight and lack of representation that it has suffered from over the many decades, has far and away more good to great things come out of it than these contrived contradictions we have seen over the past decade or so. Especially in light of the information available as to how and why these contradictions and problems have gotten to this level in neighborhoods such as ours around the country.

One need only to check with Stanford University and the University of Chicago and, of course, the CIA, DIA and the so-called intelligence community of this nation. These are the institutions that are responsible for much of the "Gang and Drug Warfare," through their "think-tank" strategies and programs that have plagued this nation since the Reagan/ Bush Years in Washington, DC.

This is all well documented by the several investigations that have been undertaken by the various IG offices and the information is available in the library, bookstores and on the Internet. So you don't have to jump to conclusions about CONspiracy theories etc.... This is a Piracy-CON in which media outlets, such as this one play a crucial role in keeping the perceptions alive and running amok. Surely it is the truth that we are seeking to get out or....??

Now, I know that you all don't like to be criticized for what you put out, claiming that you are journalists just writing the facts. However, our experience with your predecessor the "OutRage", clearly taught us for WHOM you all write. Plain and simple, you are writing to please your corporate employer and we aren't mad at you for that, but we will not tolerate this sorry a** excuse for journalism that does not reflect the 95+% decent and good that is going on in our neighborhood, its many accomplishments and its many accomplished neighbors.

So, in closing, I just want to let you know that we are keeping an eye on what you write about us and demand that it be more reflective of what the overwhelming majority of good people in this very complex and diverse community which is the Pico Neighborhood are about. We of the Pico Neighborhood Association through its Board of Directors, of which I am a member, just want you to know that we do not and will not stand for this kind of weak and prejudiced writing passed off as journalism about our community. You have been Noticed Administratively.