Greene’s bias; worth jail time; choppers in Russia; engage people; decriminalize drugs

Greene’s bias

I laughed when I read Richard Greene’s Sunday column about how George Stephanopolous’s love for the Clintons and his donation to the Clinton Foundation are another example of liberal bias (“Stephanopoulos exposes bias in network commentary again”).

Maybe. But that’s like complaining that your neighbor’s grass is too long when you’ve got a dead body in your back yard.

I suggest Greene read Bruce Bartlett’s recent commentaries about Fox News, with titles such as “Fox Peddles Propaganda” and “Fox Viewers Misinformed.”

A lot of other researchers have come to many of the same conclusions. The difference is that Bartlett is a conservative historian, author and economics policy adviser who worked for President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush, and that he argues Fox is destroying the Republican Party by breeding extremism.

— Amy Ray, Fort Worth

I read Greene’s column with amusement. As he decried George Stephanopoulos for a liberal bent, he showed his own extreme conservative view with statements about “outrageous liberal bias among the mainstream news networks.”

How would he characterize Fox?

— Nicki Morgan, Saginaw

So: Richard Greene thinks he is in the same league as George Stephanopoulos?

— John H. Brown, Arlington

Worth jail time

If corporations are people, why is it that the “people” known as Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland — having confessed and pleaded guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges of conspiring to rig the value of the world’s currencies — aren’t in jail?

What these “people” did caused all of us to pay higher interest rates on everything from credit cards to mortgages to car loans. We should all be furious, and we should all be demanding that our government do something about it.

— Richard LaChance, Fort Worth

Choppers in Russia

How is Bell Helicopter allowed to have Bell 407 GXP helicopters built in Russia with workers being laid off at its plant in Fort Worth?

Bell still gets city tax breaks.

— Mark Flora, Grapevine

Engage people

In addition to the gender stereotypes explored by Emily Amanatullah, Catherine Tinsley and Taeya Howell, their piece was a blueprint for race relations. (“People are people — so why are they treated differently?” May 22)

Just substitute the words black and white where you read women and men.

No progress can be made, however, unless you break your silence. Why should you treat a stranger of another color any differently than one of your own color? Fear?

Start by engaging the people in your neighborhood shopping centers. Begin conversations. Inquire about health, job or family. You will be richly rewarded.

Don’t stop trying if you get one or two snubs. Millions of new experiences and insights await.

— Winston Barney, Fort Worth

Decriminalize drugs

The war on drugs should be scrapped and drugs decriminalized.

Move sales from secret dealers to drug stores and tax them. Prison costs would be reduced while tax revenue could pay for rehab services.

Drugs will be with us, legal or not. Where there is demand, there will be supply.

— Gene Elliott, Arlington

This story was originally published May 28, 2015 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Greene’s bias; worth jail time; choppers in Russia; engage people; decriminalize drugs."