Response

Big fat distortion I understand Channel 4's aim to achieve high ratings ( Channel 4's big fat Gypsy ratings winner , 7 February). To suck in an audience that might ultimately consider more serious aspects of Gypsy and Traveller life, you need to lighten up first. I get that. But at what cost? By sensationalising, then deliberately focusing on the more controversial things that "make good television", the producers of this series have compromised on truth. The interest has brought out truly poisonous comments – yes, I have seen them on Twitter too. Referred to in a TV guide as "gently mocking", I find the voiceover so apparently benign as to border on sinister. Mocking affects the lives of countless people trying to find accommodation, bring up their children and earn an honest living. Romany Gypsies are aggrieved that there is no distinction made between them and Irish Travellers. Now they have seen the way TV has chosen to display the Irish Travellers, I doubt they will ever open up to reveal some of the truths about their own culture. And who can blame them? Miriam Wakerly Surrey Music is serious business Guy Hands saw music executives who wear jeans to work and are a bit less square than the average person in the City and made the mistake of underestimating what had already been achieved ( EMI: discordant and going for a song , 7 February). In fact it is a ruthless business which has dealt with market shifts about as dramatic as any industry has experienced. Over the course of its 110 or so year history the company has had a fair number of smart people through its doors. Private ownership did accelerate the restructurings needed for the company to cut its cloth to the new market economics but that has happened largely through empowering the right existing management talent. The drugs stories are old news. The bulk of the profligacy was stamped out long before music acquisitions were a glint in the eye of private equity investors and the incidence of drugs is probably less than one would find on the average trading floor in the City. The music companies and their artists are entirely separate entities; it's called music business for a reason. SalarFarzad online News, not personalities Al-Jazeera's coverage has been superior in Egypt because it has been story-led rather than correspondent-led ( Is this a revolution in world news? , 7 February). They've focused on what's happening, not who's in front of the camera. Bakelite online