Is It About Time to Give Women Special Treatment?

The Los Angeles Sparks are 21-3 and just took the Western Conference lead from the Houston Comets, the three-time WNBA champions. Yet Sparks coverage is consistently limited to a small, single article in the back somewhere. If the Lakers were in this position, or any other Los Angeles team for that matter, there would be numerous front-page articles on the coach, the players, the attitude of the team, and so on. Diagrams and charts, giving us every stat imaginable, would also adorn a special pullout section.

So I ask, with the way the Sparks have played this season, where is the recognition for the home team?

SONJA GETTEL

Glendora

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What does a sportswoman have to do to get fair representation in your sports section?

Karrie Webb won the premier event of the LPGA calendar, the U.S. Open. If money talks, she won a cool half a million dollars, plus a quarter of a million bonus. She gained enough points in her young career to make her eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

So where are these great achievements noted in your newspaper? Not on the front page of the main news section, where Tiger Woods (deservedly) has a photograph. Not on the front pages of the sports section, where Tiger has another photograph and is the lead story.

Karrie Webb is relegated to Page 7, and doesn’t even get a staff writer to write the item--it’s pulled from a wire service.

Now, let’s see, why could this be? Couldn’t be that women golfers fail to play in tight, sexy outfits, could it? Or that readers couldn’t cope with two simultaneous stories about golfing wonders winning majors?

Ah, I’ve got it, and I feel much better. It’s because Karrie Webb isn’t an American . . . right?

CLAIRE CARMICHAEL

Los Angeles