Editor, Daily Nexus,

I read two paragraphs of Jason La’s “If You Think Celebrities Are Paid Too Much, Don’t Help Pay Them” (Daily Nexus, Jan. 17) and I couldn’t read any more. He wrote “I turned to one of the twenty-four-hour cable news networks to stay current with the news. How ironic, considering my place of employment.” I don’t even want to get into what poor use he made of the word ‘ironic,’ but it seems he means that getting news from some other source besides the Nexus is unnecessary.

No newspaper (and really, especially the Nexus) is the final word on what’s going on. In fact, working at a newspaper should make you want to get as much news as possible from as many sources as possible. It’s not like the folks down at the Santa Barbara News-Press are saying “The New York Times? Hah! We don’t need them! We write the news too!” I don’t think I can adequately explain how unbearably sad (hyperbole) it makes me that a Nexite scoffs at other news-reporting agencies.

Should architects not bother looking at other buildings? Should doctor’s laugh at consulting other doctors? Should Davis just ignore Kitzhaber (“I’m a governor, too. I don’t care what he’s doing.”)? Should novelists not read?

Wait a minute, didn’t watching C-SPAN make him think about something in the news that the Nexus wasn’t reporting on?

Ah, but Jason’s just the webmaster. I wouldn’t bother looking at other websites if I were him. How “ironic” if he did.

CHRISTOPHER SHEA