I received this letter from a U.S.-based Fil-Am and nobody may have yet reported this offensive sequence which appeared on CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Perhaps our Filipino-Americans there have been busy "pummeling ABC" that they failed to take notice of this put down by CBS.

Since I don't have his permission to give his full name, let me inform that Eddie [which is his real first name] is a retired Wall Street Journal writer who is based in Washington, DC. You can tell he is a journalist from his style of writing. The disgusting CSI sequence was aired about a week ago.

What are you going to do about it? You might at least check it out.

Best,

Ben Sanchez

* * * *

13 October 2007

Hi Ben,

Are the US networks out to get us?

The Fil-Am community is still busy pummeling ABC for the gratuitous putdown of Philippine med schools on the ABC sitcom "Desperate Housewives," so it has yet to react to a less offensive but still unflattering reference to the homeland in CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" the other night As he cases a suspected murderer's digs, a CSI agent (played by Gary Dourdan) spots a yucky mess of spilled food on the floor and identifies it as "balut" as he has heard about this disgusting nosh from "a friend from Manila." Worst yet, he pronounces the word "ba-lat." Maybe I'm being too sensitive, being a balut fan from way back. But introducing balut in this way to millions of American TV viewers does no service to this iconic Pinoy snack. Half of what you see in this unblinking police procedural can make you retch, unless you already are a professional autopsy lab technician.

Eddie