Readers respond to an article by Chelsea Martin about the recent reboot of Roseanne (4/26/18):
FORMAT MATTERS
I do not own a television, and I can't stand Roseanne Barr, but Chelsea Martin's review of the Roseanne reboot is one of the funniest pieces of writing I've ever read. After proving that format, not content, is the only true message of any on-screen entertainment, she concludes with the most triumphant diss of a bad show I've ever seen. Bravo!
Michael Humiston
Grand Coulee, Wash.
OFF TARGET
The problem with Chelsea Martin's article about Roseanne is that she is apparently obsessed with the way the show is filmed using a multi-camera format and the use of a laugh track instead of the show's content. From Ms. Martin's picture, she appears to be a millennial and not truly the target audience, which is the older working class, still struggling with growing older and still facing hard times.
I remember when Roseanne first premiered in the late '80s. I related to the show because I grew up in a blue-collar working-class family. My parents struggled to make ends meet and college wasn't a priority. I was the only one in my family to get a GED and then graduate from college. But I have never forgotten my roots.
It is one of the better programs currently on TV. I'm sick of scripted and self absorbed shows like the Housewives franchise or the Kardashian nonsense. There are way too many so-called "reality" shows or crime shows that show nothing but blood and gore.
I'll take a reboot of Roseanne any day.
Anita Cervantes
Spokane, Wash.
Readers respond to a blog post about a Coeur d'Alene pastor who has defended slavery and denied the numbers from the Holocaust (4/26/18). But is he leading a hate group, as the Southern Poverty Law Center says?:
Victor VanDerHoven: Well, yes. But, I ask you all, where are these humans to go? You cannot make thoughts and speech illegal. It's against the founding principles of our government and common sense. Do they do some of the most vile and stupid things with these two freedoms? Yes. The problem is, when you attempt to crush and obliterate thought you make it more seductive to some very entropic humans. These headspaces require a place to vent them.
Elizabeth Parker: Yes. He's a vile piece of white trash. Hey Idaho, how you like being known as the home of white supremacy and Nazis? ♦
