THE PRESS
Snt,—I am perhaps the last person who should seek to defend the good name of Mr. Alastair Hethering- ton, the Editor of the Manchester Guardian. His paper is the acknowledged rival of the Yorkshire Post.
Nevertheless I cannot allow the strictures made by your contributor, Mr. Christopher Booker, in your issue of May 15, to pass without comment. No doubt the underlying criticisms made by Mr. Booker of the Guardian are justifiable. But the intemperate terms in which they were expressed arc not.
To make jokes about the name of the Editor of the Guardian is inferior journalism and 1 am most surprised that the Spectator should propagate inferior journalism. Mr. Booker refers to some mysterious persons called 'they.' Who are 'they'? I have never heard anyone refer to Mr. Hetherington in the terms which Mr. Booker says that 'they' refer to him.
The press as a whole thrives on swingeing criti- cism. But what Mr. Booker has done deserves some other name which solicitors would be experts on. May I suggest that you should return to the com- mentary on the press so ably executed by Mr. Ran- dolph Churchill—trenchant but fair?
KENNETH YOUNG
'Yorkshire Post,' Leeds
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