Kaufman Proves Hypocritical

To the editors:

Joshua A. Kaufman's ("To Write," Opinion, Jan. 23) informs us that to write is "to be honest, to set truth above all"; "to be fair"; "to tell it like it is."

And yet, mysteriously perhaps, it is also "to avoid neutrality at all costs." Kaufman seems to resolve this contradiction by invoking the "telescope of morality," that is, I presume, that neutrality can be the tool of the false and the wrong as much as of the true and the right.

But throughout his career as an editorialist, Kaufman has mistaken ideology for morality, eschewing facts and logic in favor of agendas and vendettas. If heeding his admonishment "avoid neutrality at all costs" makes a writer good, then Kaufman is remarkable. Clever to the last, Kaufman illuminates what good writing is by showing us what it is not. DAVID M. LEHN '99   Jan. 27, 1998