I was appalled to learn, from his own letter, "Haberek: 'Sensationalism' distorts coverage," (July 10), that my first selectman, Edward Haberek Jr., has a policy of not commenting to reporters from The Day, calling "salacious" a headline about a ruling that a sexual harassment complaint filed against him will be placed into the public record.

Since this headline was clearly not salacious, referring only to certain documents which Haberek himself "personally advocated" to have released, I have to conclude that Haberek's real problem is with The Day's own Freedom of Information complaint and ongoing coverage of the story, which he would understandably like to see go away.

In this he finds himself in poor company, with the management of the Amistad similarly bent on punishing, not only The Day, but the whole city of New London, for continuing to report on the mysterious matter of state subsidies for an operation that returns little or nothing to the state.

Both of these stories point out the continuing need for newspapers strong enough not to let themselves be bullied by the parties inconvenienced by their reporting.

In spite of the cancellation of "Ask Carolyn," and the ongoing embarrassment of "Pooch Café," I am, today, a proud subscriber.