Panel Comments Misreported

To the editors:

Inaccurate reporting hurts race relations and fosters stereotypes. I am referring to Katrina A. Garcia's article "Panel Tackles Blacks in Media" (News, Dec. 2). Garcia misrepresented the comments of Christopher Lydon, host of the national radio show "The Connection" and a last-minute substitute for Bill Kovach, the Nieman Foundation Curator.

Lydon said that Toni Morrison, the Nobel Laureate and African-American writer, had recently stated in The New Yorker that President Clinton had become a black man due to humiliating attacks on his character. Garcia's reporting, which omitted any mention of Toni Morrison, gave the impression that Lydon himself had come up with the idea and that Clinton blackness's had only to do with the stereotype of promiscuous black men. All of this is incorrect.

Furthermore, Garcia inaccurately quoted the response to Lydon by Greg Moore, managing editor of The Boston Globe. Moore expressed disdain for Toni Morrison's views, not for Lydon's. And lastly, Lydon did not disagree with a point made by Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson, namely that the media tend to portray successful white athletes as intelligent and successful black athletes as physically gifted.

Lydon made the comment that Garcia cites "This country is dealing remarkably well with our reality" during his opening remarks, not in response to Jackson's comments, which came much later. Lydon's point was that thoughtful, intelligent and idealistic people of all races call into his radio program, leading him to believe that the nation was grappling better with race problems than generally given credit for.

Alas, Garcia's reporting gives the impression that Lydon, the only non-African American member of the panel, was sharply at odds with his fellow panelists. Because of its errors, this article defeats the purpose of what the panel was all about. CATHERINE WALSH   Dec. 2, 1998 The author is a writer and assistant editor for the Publications Office of the Graduate School of Education.