Browne Points

Steve Hochman attempted to answer the question whether Jackson Browne’s activism was hurting his career (“Jackson Browne, Mr. Benefit,” Nov. 6).

Admittedly, it must be difficult for journalists of Hochman’s school to refrain from dichotomizing an artist’s career and his personal convictions. And so it must be very hard work for these journalists to accurately assess the enigmatic artist who places integrity above thy holy dollar.

Yet the fact remains, as Hochman notices, that “Browne is not the attraction in the pop market he once was.”

Did it not occur to Hochman that Browne is perhaps less interested in the musical pop market than in our “political pop market”? And perhaps this is why Browne’s marketability has been “diluted”?

It occurs to me that with the likes of Mr. Benefit and enough holdouts like myself, our political pop market might someday aspire to something beyond mediocrity.

MICHELE KITKO

San Diego