Letters


June 28, 2002


BOB GARFIELD: And now we'll squeeze in a couple of your letters. Matt Gowan [sp?] of Mission, Kansas wrote in to say that he loved our piece on how reporters overuse their rolodexes, going to the same sources for quotes again and again. "I was as guilty of that as anyone," he writes. "In fact one of the go-to guys I once quoted was Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor who spoke to Garfield for his report, a man widely known as the 'ubiquitous professor of pop culture,' and I thought it humorous that Thompson's own prolific "sourcery" would go unmentioned in a story about the very idea of journalistic familiarity." Yeah, Matt, well when you're right, you're right. We found him in our-- rolodex.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:And on Mike Pesca's interview last week with CNN's Lou Dobbs on his pro-Arthur Andersen reporting, Robert Stinson [sp?] of New York City had this comment: "Mr. Dobbs is entitled to his opinion on the subject, but he has continually packaged his opinions as news over the past few months, and he has bullied guests who don't agree with him by cutting them off and saying things like 'you're just wrong, sir.' He is, in fact, wrong. I have worked for both Andersen and two other Big Five firms. Each has a Document Destruction Policy. The reason for that policy," writes Stinson, " is greed. Pure and simple. For me there is no question but that Andersen has met a just fate."

BOB GARFIELD: Please send your letters to onthemedia@wnyc.org and don't forget to tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Coming up, controversy in France, kerfuffle in Minneapolis and apocalypse everywhere you turn.

BOB GARFIELD: This is On the Media from NPR.