BATS MALIGNED...
Athens, Ohio
How ironic and sad that in an article on "The New Right-Wing Smear Machine" [Nov. 12] as well as on your cover, you use the innocent, maligned bat to suggest creepy evil. It goes to show that even the most well-intentioned sometimes inadvertently make use of coded, emotionally charged stereotypes, considered culturally acceptable until we are alerted to their insidious nature. I think you owe it to bats and to the balance of nature dependent on their voracious insectivorous behavior (at least for the species you depict) to issue an apology.
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