To the Editor:
Re “Trump’s Fawning Meeting With the Saudi Prince Was a Disgrace” (editorial, Nov. 20):
The editorial board correctly called out President Trump’s disgraceful defense of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia after being asked by an ABC News reporter about the murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But in reacting as he did, Mr. Trump, undoubtedly unintentionally, called out the prince.
In castigating the reporter, Mary Bruce, the president told her, “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”
In more than 40 years as a psychiatrist, I have observed something that will be obvious to most: Innocent people, wrongly accused, are generally indignant and angry. Guilty people, rightly accused, are embarrassed or even ashamed (if they have the moral fiber for it).
When Mr. Trump least intended it, the truth slipped out.
Harold Schwartz West Hartford, Conn.
To the Editor:
Your editorial chides President Trump for his disdain of press freedom enshrined in the Constitution. Your criticism reacts to Mr. Trump’s searing rebuke of a reporter, Mary Bruce, for asking probing questions about the Trump family’s business ties to Saudi Arabia and the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. You write that the president’s behavior “suggests that he would prefer an American news media that behaves more like Saudi Arabia’s largely muzzled and obsequious media.”
But Mr. Trump did more than merely suggest that. He said it outright. That’s the thrust of calling Ms. Bruce’s question, as you reported in a news article, “insubordinate.” Mr. Trump thinks Ms. Bruce’s job is to report to the president rather than to report on the president.
Bernard Joshua Kabak New York
To the Editor:
I’d like to make a suggestion to all journalists. When the president refuses to answer a question or calls a journalist a derogatory name, every journalist should continue to ask that same question immediately.
The journalist would feel supported, and the president would not get away with shaming the journalist and would be pressed to answer the question.
Beth Rosen Bronx
Albania’s Prime Minister, on Its A.I. ‘Civil Servant’
To the Editor:
Re “This Is No Way to Rule a Country,” by Eric Schmidt and Andrew Sorota (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 16):
I have immense respect for Mr. Schmidt. His leadership at Google and his ideas on the relationship between technology and society have inspired an entire generation of policymakers, including me. But as the prime minister of Albania, I was disappointed to read his description of Diella, Albania’s A.I. governance initiative, as “a step toward ‘algocracy’: government by algorithm.”
Diella is neither a ruler nor a substitute for democracy. She is a digital civil servant, a public guardian designed to make democracy work better and public services faster, fairer and more transparent.
For decades, Albania, like many young democracies, has struggled with corruption in public procurement. When rules are broken, it is not algorithms that fail, but humans.
Diella was built to execute existing laws and procedures without bias or political interference. The values she applies — fairness, transparency, efficiency — are not mathematical abstractions; they are democratic principles, codified and fully auditable.
With Diella, every decision is traceable, explainable and open to appeal. This is not “government by algorithm.” It is government by law, executed by technology, under the scrutiny of citizens.
Albania’s aim is not to surrender power to machines, but to liberate people from inefficiency and temptation. We are not building an algocracy in Albania. We are building a digital democracy.
Edi Rama Tirana, Albania
Bullfighting Is Torture
To the Editor:
Re “Fighter of Bulls, and Mental Illness, Leaves Ring” (The Global Profile, front page, Nov. 13), about José Antonio Morante Camacho:
Watching a bullfight means watching a sentient being tormented for sport. Bulls — complex, social animals — are stabbed with lances and banderillas, weakened by blood loss and then killed while often still conscious. Calling this cruelty a tradition ignores what we now know about animals’ capacity to suffer.
Bullfighting isn’t culture — it’s torture masquerading as entertainment. It harms animals, desensitizes audiences (including children) and glorifies violence for profit.
Countries and regions around the world are rightly moving to ban blood sports; Spain should, too. It’s time to leave this practice where it belongs: in the past.
Scott Miller Binghamton, N.Y.
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