Horrible Editorial Discretion

Dear Editor,
    What horrible editorial discretion in using the Grateful Dead's Steal Your Face icon to ensconce injection paraphernalia and hepatitis C drugs on your Nov. 24 cover ["C Sick," Music]. Could it be that The Austin Chronicle Corporation, in a cheap and lazy attempt to maintain its "alternative newsweekly" image has sunken to a new all-time low (just in time for the holiday season) and capitalized on such stereotypical imagery to peddle advertising for its Black Friday edition. After all, utilizing such simplistic, prefabricated stereotypes that propagandize well-known rock iconography with drug-related imagery easily tinges as newsstand eye candy to lure in readers, and it's my guess that the majority of your revenue is based upon advertising rather than your paid circulation. Perhaps I'm incorrect and the dangerously foolish parallels symbolized in these associations were simply the result of a last-minute cut-and-paste in your graphics department due to deadline constraints and a lack of original cover-art ideas.
    At least some vague mention of Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh and his unfortunate struggles with hepatitis C would have been noteworthy. Here's the hyperlink to Phil Lesh's Web site, where he personally presents his ordeals with hepatitis C: www.phillesh.net/philzonepages/friends_stuff/hotline-010904.html. In the future, before embarking on such a shameless capitalization on the heel's of a band's logo, at least consider doing a bit more research.
    Not to be condescending, but Grateful Dead listeners are not automatically drug users by default, and some are even medical professionals working to treat and hopefully someday cure hepatitis C. It is my hope that this letter reaches print, but with all the homogenization of media and specter of news "infotainment" leaching into the "alternative newsweekly" format, it's saddening that it may be passed over for more "favorable" content.