Thank you to Bill Lindsay for focusing the discussion of the Burns documentary on issues that are rarely considered by the public at large, and in particular by the TV viewing public. In an era where we are bombarded with information and live coverage on a 24 hour basis, we forget that not long ago a record of daily events were only available to the public in the form of their local newspaper. Inevitably these events are the reporters' and editors' interpretation of what happened. Newspapers were often a forum for presenting a political point of view and the "facts" were always open to interpretation. Historians struggle with these issues all the time. What REALLY happened should always be the first question asked in the study of history. What we choose to accept as the important facts in history will always be a reflection of our biases. Therefore, when one views a documentary or reads a book on historical events one should always view that work with a jaundiced eye. Maybe Mr. Burns did not present the facts in a way that will be generally accepted by historians. A 10 hour television series is not necessarily an appropriate forum to present the history of a city more than 300 hundred years old. He could have presented a two hour documentary every night for a month and still not have covered everything that happened in New York in the last 300 years. Who are we to say that his interpretation is invalid because he got some of the facts wrong. History, unfortunately, is not a science. There is no way to test whether the theories are correct. In an age where we spend more hours of television coverage on the latest scandal or tragedy than on history, we should encourage any attempt to educate the public about the events that shaped our country. Our efforts should be focused on supporting mediums like public television that attempt to rise above the din and bring some sort of sanity and rational debate into our lives. Television is a powerful medium. As the viewing public we need to demand the best it has to give and not support the worst it has to offer. Cynthia Busch