COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	@make(letterhead,phone "497-4430",who "John McCarthy", logo old,
C00013 ENDMK
C⊗;
@make(letterhead,phone "497-4430",who "John McCarthy", logo old,
what "Professor",Department CSD)
@style(indent 9)
@blankspace(6 lines)
@begin(address)
Miss Midge Decter
Council for Free World
211 E. 51st Street
New York, NY 10022
@end(addess)
@begin(body)
@greeting(Dear Miss Decter:)

	Thanks for returning my call and your willingness to look
at the material about @i{Science and Technology Opinion}.
This letter may be longer than necessary, because I started it
before our phone conversation, and I decided to rehearse in it
my arguments aimed at convincing non-scientists that such a magazine
is desirable.

	The science and engineering communities are very important
and influential in determining Government and corporate policies.
The science and engineering community includes more than a million
people.
While much of the communication between scientists and the various
authorities is strictly scientific and technological, even this
is strongly influenced by the social and political views of the
scientist giving the advice.

	Like most people's, scientists' views on issues are strongly
affected by their opinions about who are the good guys and who
are the bad guys.  During the early 1970s, I was quite surprised
at the extent to which many scientists' opinions on technological
questions concerning energy changed when the political community
to which they had attached themselves during the late sixties
developed strong opinions on energy issues.  It seemed that their
political changes often overcame their technical judgment.

	In our opinion the political life of the country will
be improved if a balance can be created for the liberal bias
of present publications writing on science and public affairs
for the scientific and engineering communities.

	It seems to me that the near monopoly of left wing views
in the opinion columns of journals addressed to scientists has
inhibited many people's objectivity.  One has to be rather strong
minded to apply entirely objective standards to the views of
those one has been taught to regard as good guys when this involves
supporting the views of people identified as exploiters or
war-mongers.

	While scientists are influenced by general purpose publications,
certain publications specifically addressed to them are important.  Here
are a few of them.
@newpage
@blankspace(7 lines)

	1. @i{Science}.  At present the most influential
 single source of opinion for
scientists is the News and Comment section of @i{Science}.  While
the magazine is perhaps the most important single outlet for
scientific publication in the U.S., the News and Comment section is written
by journalists.  These journalists appear to be about average in opinion
for journalists, i.e. rather strongly to the left as compared to the
general population.  Many scientists to whom I have spoken find
the mixing of news and comment in the same article objectionable
and would prefer a return to old-fashioned journalistic editorial
standards.

	2. @i{Scientific American}.  Its politics was discussed
recently in @i{Commentary}, but I think the article exaggerated.
Gerard Piel is strongly opposed to U.S. nuclear weapons projects
and provides a forum for like views amounting to two or three articles
a year, but otherwise the magazine mainly sticks to science.  Its
Science and the Citizen section is less biased than Science, for example.

	3. @i{Science News Letter}.  This used to confine itself to
science news, but recently its journalists have begun to import their
opinions into their articles.
	
	4. @i{New Scientist}.  A British weekly most of whose writers
are rather to the left.

	5. @i{Science for the People}.  New left to the point of
eccentricity.

	6. @i{Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists}.  This has been
the vehicle for scientists' agonizing and guilt-mongering over
nuclear weapons since 1946.

	7. @i{Issues}.  I have only read about this project by
the National Academy of Sciences.  The names listed as involved
left me with the impression that it will promote views not far
from those of the @i{Bulletin of Atomic Scientists}, but I could
be mistaken.

	8. @i{Access to Energy}.  This newsletter is conservative
in its views and is entirely written and printed by Petr Beckmann,
a retired professor of electrical engineering from the University
of Colorado.  Its circulation of probably quite small.
@newpage
@blankspace(7 lines)

	Besides these, many scientific societies have
magazines addressed to their memberships as a whole.  These magazines
presume a general scientific education in the field but emphasize
articles aimed at, for example, all physicists.  They include both
semi-technical articles and expressions of opinion.  Such magazines
include @i{Physics Today}, @i{Chemical and Engineering News},
@i{Engineering News Record}, @i{Communications of the Association
for Computing Machinery}  and @i{AI Magazine}.

	The opinion journalists associated with @i{Science} have
been especially successful in the journalistic field.  For example, the
@i{New York Times} has hired several of them.

	I'll not go on about our proposed magazine in this letter
but will let the prospectus draft and the other material speak to
this.

	The enclosed drafts will be updated when it becomes clearer
who will be the editor and when and how often the magazine is to appear.

	Thanks again for your sympathetic reaction.  Let me further
remark that I value highly the work of the Committee for the Free
World and Freedom House.

@end(body)
Sincerely,



John McCarthy
Professor of Computer Science

@begin(body, leftmargin 0, indent 0)
P.S. @$I would like to make another attempt to get together during my
trip to the East Coast and France.  As it happens I will be in New York
four times during that trip, but the 29th was the only time that was
scheduled for a business day.  My meeting in New Paltz, N.Y. is from
Wednesday to Friday, Oct. 17 thru 19.  I will have no time on my way
to New Paltz, because I teach on Tuesday, but
I can be in New York that
weekend if there is some time we can get together.  On Monday and Tuesday,
I will be at the University of Maryland and must return to N.Y. in time
for a 1pm flight to Paris on Wednesday.  Therefore, Wednesday morning,
October 24 is possible.  I am presently scheduled to return on Sunday
the 28th but will probably postpone it to Monday the 29th in order to
do some business in Paris Monday morning.  Since the French are paying
for the Concord, I would arrive in New York, Monday morning the 29th
and won't have to leave for California till evening, although a 4pm
flight would be better for me.
@end(body)
@notations(Encl.)