Kudos to the PG, but ads that look like news articles diminish respect

I enjoyed a week-long visit to charming Pittsburgh and was delighted to pick up your Post-Gazette to find that journalism is not dead after all! My travels take me to quite a few cities where I get a chance to read the area newspaper. It has been very disappointing to find that as the years progress the quality of journalism has declined. I thought we were pretty much at the post-mortem stage.

Even in the Baltimore-Washington area, where I come from, great papers have slid into the abyss of info-tainment. Poorly written, biased, a pop-culture writing style that is little more than a reflection of momentary prevailing opinion -- that is not journalism.

Kudos to your paper!

There is one serious objection I feel worth mentioning: It is the use of "journalistic-looking advertising," as on Page A-7 on Nov. 18.

I have a medical background, so I can readily see through the inflated headlines, and "that which looks like news" is not news at all. Disconcertingly, I had to search all over the page for the tiny, tiny writing that said "advertisement."

This pseudo-news marketing is a disservice to both your paper's professionalism and to the readers' trust. More and more people are having trouble discerning the truth from marketing, especially in areas of health. I hope you will not blur those lines.

Again, but for the small yet important exception noted, I want to commend you. I enjoy your paper immensely. The writing is refreshingly intelligent and professionally journalistic. Perhaps other formerly great papers will swing back to the days when newspapers journalistically report the news.

MAUREEN McIVER

Crofton, Md.