Was Peter Arnett Right, or Irresponsible?

New York Times

o the Editor:

Re “Arnett Is Dismissed by NBC After Remarks on Iraqi TV” (news article, April 1):

I am shocked and dismayed by the dismissal of the reporter Peter Arnett from NBC, MSNBC and “National Geographic Explorer.”

It is vital that we hear all sorts of opinions regarding this war, especially from those who are witnessing it firsthand. The more I hear of dissenting voices being silenced by the media and our administration, the more helpless and hopeless I feel as an American citizen.

To see that our media, which are supposed to supply us with any information possible, are at the beck and call of our administration’s agenda infuriates me. I want both sides of the news, not just pro-war images and stories that gloss over the complexities of this situation.
ELEANOR DOIG
Brunswick, Me., April 1, 2003
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To the Editor:

Re “Arnett Is Dismissed by NBC After Remarks on Iraqi TV” (news article, April 1):

Peter Arnett should have concerned himself with reporting the developments of the conflict in Iraq rather than interviewing with an Iraqi journalist and commenting on American military policy. I think that what he did was despicable.

He should have stayed with what he knows how to do best, and that’s reporting the news. Venturing into an area where war policy is being handled by experts in that field is truly unprofessional of him, and only time will tell if his career as a journalist will be affected.

God bless the United States of America, all of its troops and George W. Bush.  
BILL BRYAN
Brownsville, Tex., April 1, 2003
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To the Editor:

Walter Cronkite finds Peter Arnett’s Iraqi TV interview “grossly irresponsible” (“Speaking With the Enemy,” Op-Ed, April 1), yet isn’t it really a case of a responsible and knowledgeable journalist revealing embarrassing truths about the White House’s failure to comprehend the people it has chosen to kill — truths that, however painful, are better revealed now than later?
TOM MILLER
Oakland, Calif., April 1, 2003
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To the Editor:

It says volumes about how effective the campaign to squelch the truth concerning the war in Iraq is that even the much-respected Walter Cronkite (Op-Ed, April 1) approves of the firing of Peter Arnett, although Mr. Cronkite does not claim that Mr. Arnett’s reporting from Baghdad was ever anything but accurate.
HARVEY J. KAUFMAN
Miami, April 1, 2003