Hard Copy

Rosenberg's assessment of "Hard Copy" is correct. The sick phenomenon of "Hard Copy" furnishes the strongest proof yet that the comedian Fred Allen was not far wrong when he said, "Television is being entertained in your own home by people you wouldn't have in your own home." RUSSELL KISHI Glendale

Question: Are owners entitled to get all financial records and minutes from our homeowners association pertaining to repairs to the condominium foundations in 1998? If so, how do we go about obtaining them and is there a time limit? How soon after a request is received should the documents be provided and does the owner have to pay for them? Answer: A titleholder is always entitled to request records but that doesn't always mean the board will comply. Under California Civil Code section 1365.

Nadas, the Oregon dog whose death sentence for chasing a neighboring horse has been commuted to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, has a friend in "Hard Copy." As do all animals. The plight of Nadas has resonated in media just about everywhere, including a recent front page story in The Times.

If the Chicago White Sox are going to be perceived as the fresh blueprint for universal baseball achievement, then imitation will follow, which means the search is on for dowdy ownership, ill-conceived ballparks, take-no-guff general managers, garrulous field leaders and rosters of players with generally ordinary skills and uncommon faith in one another. Best start now.

I have just finished reading Brian Lowry's column about the demise of "Hard Copy" ("The Tawdry, Tabloid Legacy of 'Hard Copy,' " Aug. 31). As a former intern-assistant producer over there, let me tell you that to dismiss it as a flashy and contentless show with a "stench" that will go on even after its death is missing the point. As Lowry noted, the line between tabloid shows and "legitimate" news programs has been blurred. What really was the big difference in the first place? I'm positive that the legit programs pay for interviews just like the tabloids.

Dearly beloved. Today, we come to bury "Hard Copy," not to praise it. And while it's never polite to speak ill of the dead--even those we really dislike--in its passing we feel obligated to point out what the show and its ilk have wrought. Historians will note that "Hard Copy" and other tabloid TV newsmagazines flourished in the O.J.-crazed latter half of the 1990s--a period that has been to journalism what the reign of the emperor Caligula was to government. Beyond practicing checkbook journalism by paying interview subjects, the show's low-lights included being sued by Michael Jackson (the gloved one)

Yes, we had the "Lou Grant" years. For the most part, though, the news media are given a bad time in prime time and are usually depicted as "Jaws" on land, a mindless, predatory monolith with primal urges to cover sensational crime cases by camping outside courthouses and ambushing anyone who emerges.

"Hard Copy" is awful. It is poorly done and without merit. Channel 4 should know better. Gladys Garrison, Oceanside

I was so looking forward to seeing Terry Murphy once again. Channel 2 did a nasty thing letting her go. Now I am so disappointed to see her doing slightly gilt-edged sleaze on "Hard Copy." Do we need another version of "A Current Affair"? Bring back "USA Today on TV" and put Murphy on a program like that. She deserves better than "Hard Copy." Marilyn D. Laikin, Los Angeles

"Hard Copy" (syndicated) portrays women as the used and abused: porn queens, sexual slaves and centerfolds. I am greatly offended by this image being shoved in the public eye. It airs at a family viewing hour. Why not save it for late-night television? Is it thought that without sex as a topic "Hard Copy" would not make the ratings? If so, I feel the producers underestimate the public. Shelley Smith, Northridge

Report the story, don't become the story. So says Journalism 101. But not Journalism 2005. The Justice Department is playing hardball with reporters Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, threatening hard time over leakage of a CIA operative's name, even though neither writer named her in hard copy. In the spooky world outside espionage, a White House press gallery regular was both friend and faux. James Guckert, a.k.a.

Even in an era of outsider, celebrity and self-financed candidates, the nation may not soon see another political campaign like the one that carried Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California governorship, analysts in both parties agree.

Remember the paperless office? No one talks about it much anymore, maybe because they are too busy printing out e-mails, articles from online newspapers, and all the other written material they now have access to, thanks to the wonders of technology. But on the 30th anniversary of Earth Day today, environmentalists say a society that has so readily embraced technology should remember one of the promised benefits that the Internet has failed to deliver.

I have just finished reading Brian Lowry's column about the demise of "Hard Copy" ("The Tawdry, Tabloid Legacy of 'Hard Copy,' " Aug. 31). As a former intern-assistant producer over there, let me tell you that to dismiss it as a flashy and contentless show with a "stench" that will go on even after its death is missing the point. As Lowry noted, the line between tabloid shows and "legitimate" news programs has been blurred. What really was the big difference in the first place? I'm positive that the legit programs pay for interviews just like the tabloids.

Dearly beloved. Today, we come to bury "Hard Copy," not to praise it. And while it's never polite to speak ill of the dead--even those we really dislike--in its passing we feel obligated to point out what the show and its ilk have wrought. Historians will note that "Hard Copy" and other tabloid TV newsmagazines flourished in the O.J.-crazed latter half of the 1990s--a period that has been to journalism what the reign of the emperor Caligula was to government. Beyond practicing checkbook journalism by paying interview subjects, the show's low-lights included being sued by Michael Jackson (the gloved one)

A redesigned $20 bill, intended to be harder to counterfeit, will be made public in May and put into circulation in the fall, the Treasury Department said. It will be the third in the U.S. currency series containing new security features aimed at thwarting counterfeiters. A redesigned $100 bill was issued in March 1996, and a $50 bill in October 1997. They include an embedded security thread that shows up only under certain light conditions, among other hard-to-duplicate features.

Report the story, don't become the story. So says Journalism 101. But not Journalism 2005. The Justice Department is playing hardball with reporters Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, threatening hard time over leakage of a CIA operative's name, even though neither writer named her in hard copy. In the spooky world outside espionage, a White House press gallery regular was both friend and faux. James Guckert, a.k.a.

Nadas, the Oregon dog whose death sentence for chasing a neighboring horse has been commuted to life imprisonment without possibility of parole, has a friend in "Hard Copy." As do all animals. The plight of Nadas has resonated in media just about everywhere, including a recent front page story in The Times.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Paul Diskin, manager of O'Brien's Irish Pub in Santa Monica, was busily officing at the Kinko's on Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey. Kinko's, as everybody knows by now, is much more than the world's biggest chain of 24-hour copy shops. It's "the new way to office." Diskin, standing before a large-format photocopier, was officing hard to create a new poster that would advertise the live bands coming up at the lively Main Street bar.