Subject: ktvu post

From: chan (Jeff Chan)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 93 01:03:25 PST

Jeff Chan 
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                     [email-masked]

Mr. Rob Roth 
KTVU Newsroom 
Oakland, CA

Cc: Federal Communications Commission, Senators Roberti, Petris

(via FAX) 

      PLEASE INCLUDE THIS LETTER IN KTVU'S PUBLIC FILE

July 21, 1993

Dear Mr. Roth:

This note is to let you know that California State Senator Nicholas
Petris is misinformed.  In your feature tonight on gun control he said,
"I don't know one member of the legislature that was defeated by the
gun lobby."  This is inaccurate.

During your extensive interviews tonight with Senator David Roberti,
you state that he is author of California's so-called "assault weapon"
law.  This is only partially true.  His co-author in the Assembly was
Mike Roos, formerly a representative from Los Angeles.

Mike Roos left his position as speaker pro-tem of the Assembly due to
the direct grassroots efforts of individuals across the country who
sent letters into Mr. Roos' district during his last election period.
Mr. Roos' election returns were so weak that, even though he was
technically reelected, he chose to resign shortly after the election.
The number of votes he received was so small that a recall effort would
have been vastly easier that is usually the case for an Assembly seat.

These ongoing grassroots letter writing efforts are newsworthy and of
public interest.  So much so that the Wall Street Journal and Los
Angeles Times have reported on them on several occasions.  Mr. Petris
aside, I doubt that there is a single state legislator who is unaware
of the political fate of Mr. Roos.   Mr. Roberti should be especially
aware since he is also targeted and had to expend unusually large
political and financial resources to survive his most recent election.
The grassroots individuals specifically singled out Roberti and Roos
for their firearms bans.

Not reporting on these significant and effective grassroots activities
when they occurred was at best a convenient omission. Airing Senator
Petris comments in the light of a widely known and entirely relevant
counterexample is at worst biased, irresponsible journalism.  If the
statement stands uncorrected it would constitute a disservice to the
viewing public, if not deliberate misinformation.

I hope you and KTVU will make an effort to set the record straight
immediately before or after Thursday night's final segment on gun
control.

Sincerely,

[signature]

Jeff Chan