Richard M Mosk

As members of the Los Angeles City-County Fire Board of Inquiry in 1971 following the disastrous Malibu fires (to which your Nov. 10 editorial refers), Paul Ziffren and I expressed our concern that the work and recommendations of the board would be ignored, as is often the case with appointed commissions. Our concerns were justified, for many of the board's worthwhile proposals have been disregarded--to the detriment of our community and the brave firefighters. I hope that the commission proposed by The Times, if formed, follows the lead of the Christopher Commission, which successfully oversaw the implementation of many of its recommendations.

Filmmakers and distributors expecting to see radical changes in the way their movies are rated are in for a big disappointment. Richard Mosk, the new chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America's Classification and Ratings Administration board, who last month replaced 20-year veteran Richard Heffner, says he sees little, if anything, wrong with the system that's been used to designate film ratings in this country for the past 25 years.

Who: Warren Christopher, chairman. Position: Chairman, law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. Background: Deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, deputy attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson, vice chairman of the McCone Commission, which investigated the Watts riots. Active in Democratic politics. Who: John A. Arguelles, vice chairman. Position: With Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Newport Beach office. Background: Retired California Supreme Court justice.

As members of the Los Angeles City-County Fire Board of Inquiry in 1971 following the disastrous Malibu fires (to which your Nov. 10 editorial refers), Paul Ziffren and I expressed our concern that the work and recommendations of the board would be ignored, as is often the case with appointed commissions. Our concerns were justified, for many of the board's worthwhile proposals have been disregarded--to the detriment of our community and the brave firefighters. I hope that the commission proposed by The Times, if formed, follows the lead of the Christopher Commission, which successfully oversaw the implementation of many of its recommendations.

Filmmakers and distributors expecting to see radical changes in the way their movies are rated are in for a big disappointment. Richard Mosk, the new chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America's Classification and Ratings Administration board, who last month replaced 20-year veteran Richard Heffner, says he sees little, if anything, wrong with the system that's been used to designate film ratings in this country for the past 25 years.

John Balzar (Commentary, July 31) points to some of California's problems. But one should not be overly nostalgic for the past. To be sure, we had some great, far-sighted leaders, such as California Govs. Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren and Pat Brown. But California's urban and fiscal problems of today are legacies of an earlier, lobbyist-dominated leadership that was apathetic to our inevitable population explosion and that failed to deal with predictable deficiencies, such as transportation, education and other social ills.

So Richard M. Mosk concludes that there's a conspiracy "by publishers and the entertainment industry to distort history for profit" ("The Plot to Assassinate the Warren Commission," Dec. 30). If so, then what a grand opportunity it would be for director Oliver Stone to delve back into the '60s and make a movie about how the space program and the moon landings never really took place . Here, he would show the "moon landings" faked for the public on a Hollywood sound stage and the immense sums appropriated for the space program divided up among Nixon and his cronies!

The Times and Shaw deserve congratulations on Shaw's exhaustive series. Perhaps no other newspaper would have the courage to print such articles which were not only critical of part of its own coverage but were complimentary of the excellent coverage of two of its print competitors--the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Weekly. There is, however, a serious error in your May 27 article. That article stated that "the 'independent' Christopher Commission . . .

Oliver Stone's response to Richard M. Mosk (" 'JFK' Is Not Irresponsible--Choosing to Ignore the Evidence Is," Jan. 6) carefully skirted the central issue raised by Mosk and others regarding "JFK." What has drawn the sharpest criticism is the film's strident assertion that during the 1960s a far-flung conspiracy captured the main instruments of power in our country so that, as stated by Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner), real democracy was supplanted by fascism. Tom Hayden, quick to recognize this as the heart of the film, enthusiastically embraced it as a validation of his own '60s radicalism ("Shadows on the American Storybook," Metro, Dec. 30)

Your March 30 editorial, "Bend a Rule to Get Results," advocates the Los Angeles Police Department offering a break to officers who step forward now with information about criminal misconduct they witnessed years ago but never reported. Bend a rule to get results? That could well have been the credo of those accused in the Rampart matter. This is the same misguided "the ends justify the means" thinking that seduced those officers into forsaking their integrity. Police officers have an ethical responsibility to do the right thing.

Who: Warren Christopher, chairman. Position: Chairman, law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. Background: Deputy secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter, deputy attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson, vice chairman of the McCone Commission, which investigated the Watts riots. Active in Democratic politics. Who: John A. Arguelles, vice chairman. Position: With Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Newport Beach office. Background: Retired California Supreme Court justice.

Prof. Alan Dershowitz, in his suggestion that there be a new investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy, overlooks several important facts ("Trust Lost, New J.F.K. Probe Is Needed," Op-Ed Page, Nov. 9). Every significant scientific question raised after the Warren Commission Report has in fact been re-investigated. Scientists have examined the autopsy pictures and concluded that the evidence was consistent with the Warren Commission Report. The National Academy of Sciences investigated the acoustics information raised by the House Select Committee and concluded that "reliable acoustics data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman."

The main civil courthouse at 1st and Hill streets in downtown Los Angeles was renamed for the late California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk on Monday in a ceremony at the Music Center attended by leading political and judicial officials. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and the chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Zev Yaroslavsky, were among the speakers.