Coverage That's All Appearance and No Substance

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Is your political series "The Front-Runners" a satire of media political analysis? Are your gossip columnists writing it? You have devoted column inches to Mitt Romney's "anchorman" hairstyle ["Anchored Away," Dec. 10], and you said that John Edwards looks like "a man in costume" ["Working It," Dec. 11].

"How he looks"? "How he talks"? What about what the candidates say? What about what they've done?

This seems like a new low in superficial coverage. The American public deserves a cardboard cutout and a sound bite for leadership if it falls for this type of focus on trivial issues of appearance and style.

-- Julie Wiatt

Takoma Park

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Robin Givhan's Dec. 10 piece, "Anchored Away," was as idiotic as it was offensive. For what conceivable reason would you devote any time whatsoever to a presidential candidate's hairstyle?

This type of reporting is not only devoid of constructive or relevant information related to the candidate -- in this case, Mitt Romney; it is yet another sad example of the disastrous political reporting promulgated by The Post this election season.

This media infatuation with the appearance of the candidates reeks of an insidious bias, or worse, the desperate attempt for a newspaper to create, and then latch onto, a story line.

Do all your readers (and yourselves) a favor: Stick to the issues. For hairstyle faux pas, we'll stick to US Weekly.

-- Casey Conley

North Conway, N.H.

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Eugene Robinson consistently encourages racial thinking by seeing everything through the distorting glass of race ["Oprah the Believer," op-ed, Dec. 11].

Is it possible that a white person would not vote for Barack Obama for president because Obama has zero foreign policy experience, zero executive experience and zero substantial legislative record? Nah -- it's all racism.

The other two anointed Democrats average barely more than a single undistinguished term in national elective office, so is refusal to support them simply gender discrimination and anti-Southerner bias? One could analyze the Republicans similarly.

Racial thinking obscures the judgment we need to apply to candidates. It is a disservice to Americans of all stripes except the prejudiced.

-- Walter Buchmann

Wilmette, Ill.