LETTERS: ALL THE PARTIES NEED COVEREGE IN NEWS MEDIA

To the editor:

Bush. Gore. Republican. Democrat. Election 2000.

This basically all you hear. Newspapers hardly even cover the other parties. The same with TV news and sometimes the radio. I have been reading the newspapers this election year even though I am not old enough to vote yet. I have only seen a little coverage of the other parties.

Do most people even know there are other parties, especially the young people who voted for the first time this year? I have only learned about the Libertarian, Constitution, Reform, Natural Law and Green parties because my dad tells me about them from odd news sources like the Internet and special papers.

We need better coverage. All the parties need to be covered so people can know about other parties so they can vote for whom they want and not just for a Republican or Democrat. They should not have to search for other news sources if they don't like the candidates in the two major parties. They should be able to open the local paper or turn on the news and get information about all the candidates.

Maybe if there had been better coverage of all the parties, we would not have the mess we are in now. I hope in the next election people will have a better choice.

KIRA LEE POTTORF

Jackson, Mo.