Transcript
BROOKE GLADSTONE: This is On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield with a few of your letters. We got a variety of responses to my interview a couple of weeks ago with Loren Coleman, an expert in suicide prevention, about the shooting at the Amish school. Susan Beall of Moses Lake, Washington, writes, "I believe that the news media go over the top giving us too many details about the shooters. As Coleman said, let's publish more about the victims and less about the shooter." But Richard Karel of Baltimore suggests that Coleman should heed his own words. "Your guest, who bemoaned how the mass media may generate copycat shootings by needlessly sharing explicit details, then went on a moment later to list a number of those horrifying and, by his take, needlessly publicized details. Since hearing the explicit details, which I had not previously heard, I've found the event even more disturbing. "Perhaps your guest should think before speaking, particularly if, by his speech, he is furthering a practice that he says he is opposed to."
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Of my tribute to Fox News on its 10th birthday last week, Keith Turner in Boston writes that, quote, "You had me laughing out loud in the aisle of the grocery store with my headphones on. I thank God and President Bush that there are far-left bomb-throwers like you guys on the air." Thanks, Keith, but in the spirit of being fair and balanced, we also heard from a couple of listeners who didn't like it at all, like Donald D. Denton Jr., of Richmond, Virginia, who said that, quote, "The smarmy voice and comments of your reporter about Fox News' 10th anniversary demonstrates beyond all reasonable doubt why more people listen to Fox than to NPR." Actually, I don't think they do, although more certainly listen to Rush Limbaugh.
BOB GARFIELD: And, finally, mail from Jerry in San Francisco, who shares with us a personal memory of the first remote control, whose 50th anniversary we celebrated last week. He writes thusly. "The Zenith Space Command was supposed to be ultrasonic. However, I recall that you could inadvertently charge the channel just by jiggling your keys."
BROOKE GLADSTONE: Keep your comments and corrections coming to onthemedia at wync.org, and don't forget to tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER]