Transcript
Letters
March 17, 2001
BROOKE GLADSTONE: We had a heap of letters from you this week, dear listeners. Bill Fisher of Iowa City was dissatisfied with our interview with Daniel Minahan, the writer and director of the film Series 7 -- a satire about reality TV. We let him get away with naked hyping, he wrote. Minahan, he says, is doing what so many others of his kind do every day -- disguising titillation with the hypocritical veneer of respectability and holier than thou platitudes about what is good for us. On our segment about local TV news, most were appreciative of Mike Pesca's examination of some of the more pernicious tendencies of the form. Thomas Ware wrote considering that research shows that 75 percent of Americans depend on TV for their main news source, it is not surprising that we end up with an insensate, confused, passive populace -- easy prey for demagogues and manipulators.
Some took exception to our interview with CBS executive Joel Cheatwood. Bob Ffeiffer of Buffalo, New York remarked that the ivory tower journalists -- that's us -- who sit in judgment and criticize newscasts for their coverage have rarely been in the trenches themselves.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:By far the most mail -- in fact the biggest response we've received for anything -- was sparked by our interview with investigative reporter Greg Palast about his examination of alleged voter fraud in Florida. Most of the mail echoed the sentiments of Edward Marx of Villa Park, Illinois who wrote when I, in the fogginess of sleep, heard the piece presented about this whole sorry election I sat bolt upright in bed. After checking your site and the Guardian's site on the Web, I was appalled and saddened by the sordid facts of the affair.
George Sheridan wrote that shortly after the election he heard that various media outlets were going to conduct their own recounts and quote "inform the public how the Florida vote would have gone using various standards for which ballots would be acceptable. Lately, however," he writes, "I've heard nothing about any followthrough! Do you know if it's still to happen?
Well George, so far, the followthrough has been remarkably hard to follow.
BOB GARFIELD:In mid-January the Palm Beach Post reported that its review of Dade County ballots found a net gain of 6 votes for Bush. Then late last month the Miami Herald said its recount showed Al Gore up only 49 additional votes. And just last weekend the Palm Beach Post said that more than 6,000 attempted votes for Gore went uncounted because voters punched their ballots twice.
And of course we have Greg Palast's sobering account of what he calls Florida's ethnically cleansed voter rolls to consider.
So the story is far from over. The most comprehensive recounts are still to come. The Tribune Company newspapers, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and CNN among others have tapped a University of Chicago-based research firm to examine nearly 200,000 ballots the machines couldn't read. The results should be out in a couple of weeks, though the argument will probably go on forever.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:Keep those letters coming. You can write to us at On the Media at WNYC.org. Tell us where you live and how to pronounce your name.